Lorne Michaels says he hasn't had to bid goodbye to anyone in the current "Saturday Night Live" cast except for Kristen Wiig -- "so far."
But in an interview with TheWrap on Monday, he was noncommital about who's staying and going. The show often waits until late summer to make such decisions.
Wiig left the show with a tearful sketch Saturday in which she hugged her castmates goodbye. Although many have speculated that Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis would also leave after this season, neither received a similar goodbye.
We spoke to Michaels at the Peabody Awards on Monday, where he was honored for executive producing the IFC comedy "Portlandia," which was created by and stars Carrie Brownstein and "SNL" vet Fred Armisen.
We noted the lack of an "SNL" sendoff for anyone but Wiig.
"Not so far, yeah," Michaels said.
Did the lack of a goodbye mean Sudeikis and Samberg are staying?
"You never know," Michaels said. "I think everyone gets through the season and just the level of fatigue by the end is just overwhelming, and it's a very emotional time. I've had a rule since the second season, which is to not make any decisions in June. We'll see in July."
Some have speculated that a line in Samberg's "Lazy Sunday 2" digital short on Saturday suggested that he, too, was on the way out. "Lazy Sunday" was his breakthrough sketch on the show in 2005. Saturday's sequel ended with the lines, "On these New York streets I honed my fake rap penmanship/That’s how it began, and that’s how I’m-a finish it."
One cast member with no immediate plans to exit "SNL" is Armisen. He said he hopes to continue with both "SNL and "Portlandia," as he has done for the first two seasons of the IFC show.
"I hope things keep going," he said. "I don't take anything for granted."
Armisen, who has been on "SNL" for a decade, said he isn't worried about burning out.
"I want to burn out," he joked. "I want it to kill me."
Armisen, who called Wiig's goodbye episode "emotional," said he wasn't fazed by one of his biggest moments of the night. In one skit, he played a karaoke singer who does a dead-on Mick Jagger impression. He did it as the real Jagger, the show's host, watched.
"You know what's crazy about 'SNL'? It's like hyper-reality," Armisen said. "There's so much happening. And you're thinking of camera angles -- you can't even think of anything. You just go, 'Gotta do Mick Jagger' now. And then later you go, 'Oh my God, he was right there.' But it was a thrill."
"Meeting Mick Jagger -- he's an exceptional human being," Armisen added. "He's a person of the ages. An intellectual, just British, brilliant guy. Who's head-to-toe DNA: rock star."
