Michael Ausiello spoke to Michaela Watkins to get her take on why she was dropped from the new season of Saturday Night Live.She says she was shocked. (She's not alone!)
Here's the highlights from Michael's interview:
What explanation did Lorne Michaels give you?
WATKINS: The only explanation I got from him — and he’s not known to say things just to make people feel better — was that he felt deep down that I should have my own show. And I agreed. SNL was a dream come true for me. It was a fantastic year. I don’t have any regrets.
Lorne fired you because he thought you were good enough to get your own show? What am I missing here?
WATKINS: You tell me. I honestly don’t know. What he said is he’s trying to get what’s best for him and best for me. He said it had nothing to do with talent. And I’m just going to go on that. That was his only explanation. He’s looking at the whole mix of the show and maybe he feels that what I bring would be better served on a sitcom. They hired two new gals [Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad] that I think are going to be exquisite.
What was your reaction?
WATKINS: Shock. And sadness [because] it just felt premature. But on some level I feel like there are so many opportunities and things that I want to do in the future and now they’ll just happen sooner rather than later.
What’s next? Are you going to take Lorne up on his advice and pursue your own show?
WATKINS: Yes. I just want to make people laugh, and I want to do that the best way possible.
