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Shane Gillis' 'SNL' firing left Lorne Michaels 'furious'

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Lorne Michaels blames NBC for Saturday Night Live's firing of Shane Gillis.

The “SNL” creator said he was “angry” about the decision in a new Wall Street Journal profile.

“He said something stupid, but it got blown up until the end of the world,” Michaels, 79, said in the interview published Thursday. “I was angry. I thought, 'You didn't see what we were going to do and what I was going to try to bring out in him because I thought he was the real thing.'”

Gillis was fired from “Saturday Night Live” in 2019 before getting the chance to appear on the show. Days after announcing his addition to the cast, Gillis faced backlash over a 2018 podcast clip in which he used an anti-Asian slur, mocked stereotypical accents and said that “an Asian guy trying to learn English , bothers me.”

USA TODAY has reached out to NBC for comment.

A spokesperson for the show said at the time that they had “no knowledge of his previous comments that have emerged in recent days.” The spokesman added: “The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips sooner and that our review process did not meet our standards.”

But Michaels now says the move was NBC's decision: “That was a very strong statement from those responsible. And of course I wasn’t on that page, but I got it.”

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In a September interview with The Hollywood Reporter, amid the scandal, Michaels added, “200 Asian companies would boycott the show.”

Gillis apologized after the video resurfaced, saying at the time that he was a “comedian who pushes boundaries” and that he would “happy to apologize to anyone who was actually offended by anything I said.”

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“If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of which were bad, you'll find a lot of terrible failures,” he continued. “My intention is never to hurt anyone, but I try to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires taking risks.”

The sketch show brought Gillis back as host in February, nearly five years later, to mixed reactions from viewers.

“Most of you probably have no idea who I am,” Gillis said in his monologue. “I was actually fired from this show a while ago, but please don’t look into it. If you don't know who I am, please don't google this. It's okay. Don't worry about it.”

He added: “Honestly, I probably shouldn't be up here.”

Featuring: Brendan Morrow and Doc Louallen

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