'Saturday Night Live' creator Lorne Michaels insists any reports that special guests have been "banned" from the late-night sketch show are false.
The 80-year-old producer has addressed the many rumours about stars - including late musicians Sinead O’Connor and Frank Zappa - being handed lifetime bans from appearing on the long-running programme, claiming they are “way too crass and opportunistic” to be woke about any controversial comments made by their celebrity guests.
Speaking in the new documentary 'Ladies and Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music', he is quoted by Billboard as saying: “I’ll read it sometimes in the [New York] Post, ‘So and so’s banned for life'.
“We’ve never banned anyone. We’re way too crass and opportunistic. If something’s hot, we’re going to go for it and have it on.”
Michaels had previously suggested it would be a good time to bow out of ‘SNL’ – which he started in 1975 – after the 50th anniversary episode, but he has since vowed to stay put.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he said: "People have decided somehow that [SNL is] important. And so as long as it’s important and I can be useful, I’ll stay."
He had earlier told 'CBS Mornings': “You know, I think I’m committed to doing this show until its 50th anniversary, which is in three years.
“I’d like to see that through, and I have a feeling that’d be a really good time to leave. But … I won’t want the show ever to be bad. I care too deeply about it. It’s been my life’s work. So I’m going to do everything I can to see it carry on.”
But the executive producer admitted "of course" 'SNL' could exist without him.
He added: “I have a sense of where we’re headed with that, you know.”
Michaels - who previously stepped away from the programme for five years in the early 1980s - declined to say who could replace him on the show.
He said: "I’m not going to go on about it — it’s three years away.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Michaels insisted he doesn't think any topic is "out of bounds" for comedy, if it can be tackled in the right way.
He said: “I think it’s up to the writer or the performer to figure out how to do it.
"There are lots of things that, when you hear the idea, sounds awful. But if they can do, I don’t think anything’s out of bounds, is what I’m saying, if there’s enough talent to figure out how to get it across.”
Meanwhile, the milestone will be celebrated with the star-studded 'SNL50: The Homecoming Concert' by Peacock on February 14 at New York City's iconic Radio City Music Hall.
Special guests include Lady Gaga, Jelly Roll, Miley Cyrus and Chris Martin.
