Lorne Michaels might retire from Saturday Night Live in time for its 50th season

It’s been nearly 50 years since Lorne Michaels created Saturday Night Live, and he’s been running it and executive producing it ever since—save for a stretch when he left to do other things in the ‘80s that was so infamously disastrous it seemingly proved that he’s never allowed to leave ever again. NBC better start coming up with a better plan to replace him than last time, though, because Michaels might be ready to retire from the show fairly soon.

This comes from an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings, during which Michaels suggested the show’s 50th anniversary could be a “really good time to leave.” That’s three years away still, so NBC doesn’t need to panic yet about finding a replacement or losing its direct line to Michaels’ best friend Paul Simon, but Michaels did note to King that he has “a sense of where we’re headed” in terms of who might serve as showrunner/executive producer after him. Maybe they could have a long “audition” process like Jeopardy! did and then choose the worst option and then a back-up option that is also bad when the first one doesn’t work out?

One thing that weighs on Michaels’ mind when it comes to contemplating his departure is that he “won’t want the show ever to be bad,” because it’s been his “life’s work” and he intends to do what we can to “see it carry on and carry on well.” As for the show ever being bad, we have some unfortunate news for him: Everyone thinks the show was better when they were younger, just like how everyone thinks everything was better when they were younger, so he probably doesn’t need to worry that much.

In the lead-up to season 100, old people will be talking about how much better season 50 was and how it’s weird to think of President Pete Davidson being on a comedy show. (We assume that Pete Davidson will become president in the next few decades, alongside Secretary Of State Machine Gun Kelly.)

[via Deadline]