Netflix is betting big on Shane Gillis, since he’s apparently okay now

Appearing on Saturday Night Live can help you become president, but not appearing on SNL apparently has plenty of benefits of its own: Morgan Wallen’s career is much bigger now than it was before he got booted from a musical guest gig for not wearing a mask in public in 2020 (a scandal that was soon overshadowed by a bigger one that everyone also quickly forgot about), and now everything seems to be coming up Shane Gillis. After getting a spot on the SNL cast in 2019 and then losing it four days later when the show decided to Google him, Gillis came back to host the venerable-ish NBC sketch show this weekend—having found new success from the Joe Rogan crowd as a guy who tells it like it is or whatever.

So, in a sense, getting fired from SNL got him on SNL, and now it’s getting him even more: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has signed a deal with Gillis to give him his own show and a second stand-up special (with the first, Beautiful Dogs, released last year). The show, called Tires, is based on a pilot that Gillis had posted on YouTube (it doesn’t appear to be available anymore, at least in full). It’s about the “nervous and unqualified heir to an auto repair chain” who tries to maintain his father’s business will facing “constant torture from his cousin and now employee.” Gillis will play the tortuous cousin. THR says the show will premiere on May 23, which is quite a turnaround.

In addition to the stand-up special, Netflix is having Gillis perform two stand-up shows at its Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival in May, so it’s clearly eager to be in the Shane Gillis business. And if he had never been fired from SNL, he’d probably still just be on SNL!