Kenan Thompson has been down this road before. In 2018, the “Saturday Night Live” legend was Emmy nominated not only in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category but in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for “Come Back Barack.” He ended up with his first Emmy Award in the latter category. This year, not only does Thompson have a shot at his third nomination in the Supporting Actor category, but in the Lead Actor race as well for his new hit comedy series “Kenan.”
A staple on “SNL” since 2003, it seemed inevitable that at some point Thompson, who broke through as a child actor on the Nickelodeon series “All That,” would either transition to movies or get his own stand-alone comedy program. The result, which debuted this past February, came after writer and co-creator Jackie Clarke (“Superstore”) wrote three different versions of a Thompson-led series, including a 2019 Chris Rock-directed pilot that disappointingly never aired. Last year, “Happy Endings” and “Black Monday” veteran David Caspe was brought in to help retool the project into what viewers have now embraced as “Kenan.”
Set in Atlanta, Thompson plays a recently widowed father of two who supports his family by hosting a popular early morning news show. Kenan lives with his father-in-law (Don Johnson) and is managed by his brother, Gary (Thompson’s “SNL” co-star Chris Redd). Even though it literally took years to get there, Thompson is more than satisfied with where the show ended up.
“I guess in the pilot I was like a real estate agent, and as exciting as real estate is, I’m kind of glad that we shifted into me being like a morning show kind of host, which is much more similar energy to what I do on ‘SNL’ or whatever,” Thompson explains. “It offers up some quirky type opportunities for my character without stretching it too hard; you know what I’m saying? Like, if I’m in the house and I’m cooking dinner, how am I going to like get into a crazy kind of comedic situation without it feeling like a reach? I think the morning show allows for that to happen a lot smoother. So that’s one major shift that I was really enjoying.”
The first season was shot in the middle of the COVID pandemic before “SNL” returned in the fall of 2020. As it progressed, more details about Kenan’s life were revealed, including the fact he starred in a sitcom with his now-deceased wife and was in a one-hit-wonder boy band in the late ’90s called Flipp’d. (And never fear “Kenan” fans, Flipp’d likely return. Thompson definitively notes, “There’s just got to be. There’s got to be a Flipp’d reunion every season, I feel like.”)
Over his career, Thompson has been at the centerpiece of so many classic musical moments on “SNL” and admits he has an infatuation with the art form.
“I have a list of things that I wish I could do, like dunk a basketball at playoffs, or shred a guitar, or be a musician, or be a rockstar of some sort,” Thompson says. “So, it kind of lets me live that fantasy a little bit when we can do it, and it’s still funny, and that’s how people will actually receive it. It has to sound good, but it also has to be funny. So when we do hit the bull’s eye on that, it’s like, man, that’s like a real home run.”
And despite two Emmy nominations for songwriting (he was also recognized in 2017 for “Last Christmas”), Thompson refuses to take a lion share of the credit.
“There’s a couple of dudes that specialize in and focus on ‘How do I turn certain genres into comedy basically?’ One of the guys we got from [Adam] Sandler’s camp, Dan Bulla,” Thompson reveals. “He just writes comedy to any musical genre there is. And then our other buddy, Will Stephen, wrote the ‘Comeback Barack’ with us, so he has an infatuation with R&B, nineties rap and stuff like that, and nineties era stuff. It was just a very funny silky candle-lit kind of era, and he likes to dibble and dabble in that as well, along with Chris, of course. A lot of that old school and new school kind of rap is coming out of Chris as well. So between like those kinds of three dudes is usually when I start getting my musical participation in from basically.”
While many shows were filming on strict bubble protocols on sound stages or remote production, “SNL” was one of the few shows to attempt to bring the “live” experience back with limited masked audiences. Thompson admits it was a very scary and confusing time “because we had to basically uproot everything we were used to and start living by these different rules. But at the same time, we all appreciated hearing jokes, being around talented people, and being around our loved ones. And also seeing our loved ones being able to work and provide for their families and stuff like that. So, it was big; everybody lifts the boulder kind of a situation.”
Thompson continues, “We started with a six-week run, which was the craziest thing in the history of the show. So once we finished that, we thought that was going to be it for the season. We didn’t know if we were going to do the December shows. But then they came around, and we did that. I was ‘All right, cool, so I guess we’ll readdress life as it goes on in the New Year.’ And then the new year came, and we came back to like four in a row or five in a row, or whatever it was. And it just continued. And then, all of a sudden, it was the season finale, and we had a full audience. So, man, it was the craziest arc I think I’ve ever witnessed or even heard about in my lifetime or my parents’ lifetime, you know what I mean? Just a full stop and then a restart, and then getting back kind of up to speed. It was epic.”
The show’s cold open began with Thompson, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, and Aidy Bryant during the aforementioned season finale. Four long-time members of the cast rumored to be leaving the show. When asked if that was the case, Thompson genuinely sounded surprised anyone would think he’d not try to continue double duty with “Kenan” and “SNL.”
“I mean, as far as I know,” Thompson says over returning. “I haven’t really been told not to. So, I’m planning on being there; you know what I’m saying?”
Ask Thompson why he wants to continue “SNL,” and his passion for the ever-changing and live aspect of the format bursts through.
“Like it never is the same experience, you know what I’m saying? There are similarities or whatever, but we’re always starting from scratch, and every laugh and every reaction is earned every single time,” Thompson says. “So 20 years can just fly out of your life because it’s almost like you’re restarting every single week, and you just don’t realize up until the end of the season. A lot of the times we look back, four shows in, and it’s like, ‘O.K., who’s hosted the premiere?’ Nobody will know because you’re just in a zone. So that, and being around loved ones, like they’re my family at this point. But also, I enjoy having that front-row seat to talented people.”
With so many season 46 sketches Thompson admits it’s hard to pick out one he’s most proud of, but leading a version of the Village People during “Weekend Update” was memorable for several reasons.
“That was a good one. It’s hard to sing well, especially if it’s a song with lower tones for myself. Because I do the warm-up song, and sometimes I blow my voice out because I’m singing that song twice before the show even starts, the live show or whatever,” Thompson says. “So by the time ‘Update’ happens, it’s like midnight, and I was just surprised I still had enough capability to like get it off, and also not be a distraction so people can hear the jokes. Like that’s the whole thing, it’s like the music has to sound good so people can listen to the jokes and enjoy the jokes without being distracted. So all those things kind of being a perfect storm, yeah, that was awesome.”
“Kenan” and “Saturday Night Live” are available on Peacock.