What you need to know
Kevin Nealon is opening up about being fired from Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” desk in 1994.
In a recent interview on Obsessed: The Podcast, Nealon, 72, told host Matt Wilstein that he learned the details of his firing during the show’s news parody segment, titled Lorne, the 2025 biopic about SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels.
“I just finished reading a book called Lorne, about Lorne Michaels, and I’m learning things that go on behind the scenes that I didn’t know about,” the comedian said. “In the book, it says that Don Ohlmeyer (who was the head of NBC at the time and was in and out of rehab) didn’t like me on Weekend Update.”
Never miss a news. Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.
Amanda Edwards/Getty; Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
Mr. Ohlmeyer’s struggle with addiction has been documented in the past, including in Variety magazine, which reported on his stay at the Betty Ford Treatment Center in 1996.
“I knew I was removed from it because[Ohlmayer]wasn’t happy with me, but I didn’t know until I read the book that one of the reasons was that he called me a ‘mushmouth.’ He couldn’t understand some of the things I said,” Nealon added.
He continued: “And, you know, if you’re at parties like he is, I think you know what a ‘mush mouth’ is.”
Nealon added that it was “okay” when he left the Weekend Update desk, as he was also writing and appearing in various sketches on the show.
“It was a tough job, but I enjoyed it for three years,” Nealon said of anchoring Weekend Update from 1991 to 1994. Nealon appeared on Saturday Night Live until 1995.
