--- title: SNL 40th Anniversary: Lorne Michaels on Rejected Auditions description: The Saturday Night Live creator admits he overlooked some serious talent canonical: https://time.com/3695820/snl-40th-anniversary-lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-auditions/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-04T20:15:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:05.552Z og:title: Here's Who Lorne Michaels Regrets Not Hiring on 'Saturday Night Live' og:description: The 'Saturday Night Live' creator admits he overlooked some serious talent og:url: https://time.com/3695820/snl-40th-anniversary-lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-auditions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte36d69c53cf35aa0/69877da006f2c122d7333d01/454143634.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: NBCUniversal Events - Season 2014 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Who Lorne Michaels Regrets Not Hiring on 'Saturday Night Live' twitter:description: The 'Saturday Night Live' creator admits he overlooked some serious talent twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte36d69c53cf35aa0/69877da006f2c122d7333d01/454143634.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Who Lorne Michaels Regrets Not Hiring on _Saturday Night Live_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 4, 2015 8:15 PM UTC  NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS -- The NBC Emmy Party -- Pictured: Lorne Michaels, "Saturday Night Live" at Boa Steakhouse, West Hollywood, Calif., August 24, 2014 -- (Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS -- The NBC Emmy Party -- Pictured: Lorne Michaels, "Saturday Night Live" at Boa Steakhouse, West Hollywood, Calif., August 24, 2014 -- (Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)NBC—Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 4, 2015 8:15 PM UTC _Saturday Night Live_ is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and is now prepping for a star-studded special broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 15\. To mark the occasion, _The Hollywood Reporter_ [sat down with Lorne Michaels](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lorne-michaels-40-years-snl-769101), a.k.a the man who built the _SNL_ empire. Michaels reflects on four decades of sketches (ones that killed and ones that bombed), hosts, musical guests and other memories of the show. But one of the most interesting parts of the interview comes when he’s asked about potential cast members he overlooked — and then later kicked himself for rejecting. Michaels first mentions **Steve Carell** and **Stephen Colbert,** who auditioned before both of their careers exploded, thanks to _The Daily Show_. “There were lots of people who you’d see how brilliant they were,” Michaels said, “but you knew on some level that it wasn’t going to work.” He then mentions **Lisa Kudrow**, who “gave a brilliant audition, but it was at the time when it was Jan Hooks and Nora \[Dunn\].” Finally, Michaels also mentions that **Jim Carrey** once auditioned — but he wasn’t present for that one. Someone who was there simply assumed Michaels wouldn’t like him. “They were probably wrong, but it doesn’t matter,” Michaels said. “Or maybe they were right — who knows? No one gets it all right.” ([h/t _The Hollywood Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lorne-michaels-40-years-snl-769101)) ### See 13 Stephen Colbert Cameos You Might Have Missed  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Lake-town Spy Todd Eyre—Warner Bros.  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Dandliker (pictured left) Fox  Bewitched - Stu Robinson (pictured left) Columbia  Mr. Peabody & Sherman - Paul Peterson 20th Century Fox  Monsters vs Aliens - President Hathaway Dreamworks ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3695820/snl-40th-anniversary-lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-auditions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3695820/snl-40th-anniversary-lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-auditions/"},"headline":"Here's Who Lorne Michaels Regrets Not Hiring on Saturday Night Live","datePublished":"2015-02-04T20:15:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:05.552Z","description":"The Saturday Night Live creator admits he overlooked some serious talent","url":"https://time.com/3695820/snl-40th-anniversary-lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-auditions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte36d69c53cf35aa0/69877da006f2c122d7333d01/454143634.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte36d69c53cf35aa0/69877da006f2c122d7333d01/454143634.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NBCUniversal Events - Season 2014","caption":"NBCUniversal Events - Season 2014","creditText":"NBC—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3695820/snl-40th-anniversary-lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-auditions/","name":"Here's Who Lorne Michaels Regrets Not Hiring on Saturday Night Live"}}]}] ```