Why Lorne Michaels Thinks Steven Seagal Was the Worst ‘Saturday Night Live’ Host Ever
Saturday Night Live has featured hundreds of celebrity hosts since it premiered in 1975. But Steven Seagal is still regarded as one of the worst. Here’s why showrunner Lorne Michaels banned the actor from ever hosting SNL again.
Steven Seagal hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1991
Seagal was a popular actor in the late ’80s and early ’90s. He started his career in 1987 with writer/director Andrew Davis’ Above the Law and went on to appear in Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, Out for Justice, and Under Seige.
In April 1991, Seagal was invited to host Saturday Night Live with musical guest Michael Bolton. He appeared in a few of the night’s sketches, including “Pumping Up with Hans and Franz” and “The Dark Side with Nat X.”
Despite the effort of the talented SNL cast — which included Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Kevin Nealon, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, Phil Hartman, and Mike Myers — Seagal’s sketches fell flat. He delivered his dialogues with poor comedic timing and tone, resulting in awkward silences and scattered laughs from the audience.
Why Lorne Michaels thinks Steven Seagal was the worst ‘Saturday Night Live’ host
Michaels has been the driving force behind SNL since its inception. And he’s invited hundreds of celebrities — including actors, singers, musicians, comedians, politicians, and athletes — to host over the last 48 seasons.
But for Michaels, Seagal proved to be the worst host ever. And after the 1991 debacle, he never invited the actor back.
And Michaels made his opinion known when Nicolas Cage hosted SNL in 1992. In his monologue, Cage joked he might be the “biggest jerk who’s ever been on the show.” Michaels responded, “No, no. That would be Steven Seagal.”
Michaels didn’t go into detail. But according to SNL star David Spade, the general sentiment on set was that Seagal was difficult to work with, wouldn’t cooperate with the cast, and insisted he write his own sketches.
“You have to sort of trust these 30 people you don’t know,” Spade said on the Literally! With Rob Lowe podcast. “A lot of people think we’re there to make fun of them. But if we’re getting you on the show to host, we all want it to work.”
“And if you make fun of yourself — this is where it gets tricky — it will benefit you. And we promise you. And if you don’t, and if you fight it too much — that was [Seagal].”
Steven Seagal reportedly locked himself in his dressing room because he was unhappy with an ‘SNL’ sketch
Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon had a recurring sketch on SNL in the ’90s called “Pumping Up with Hans and Franz” in which they played Austrian bodybuilders that idolized Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to cast member Julia Sweeney, when they wrote their initial sketch for Seagal, they proposed Hans and Franz would beat him up.
But Seagal was not happy with the idea. And as Sweeney told HuffPost, the actor took it so seriously, he locked himself in his dressing room.
“[Seagal was] so horrible on such a scale, it was such a huge scale of terribleness that it was undeniable by anyone who was there,” she said. “It was really legendary craziness.”
