It turns out that Bill Maher almost scored a seat behind the Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update desk — prior to famed SNL comic Norm Macdonald getting the gig.
According to The Daily Beast, Jim Downey, a former writer on the hit NBC sketch comedy series, reunited with fellow former SNL writer and cast member Al Franken on his The Al Franken Podcast. Franken shared that he and Downey “wrote a lot of the political stuff” for the show together, and rehashed searching for Kevin Nealon‘s Weekend Update replacement in 1994.
He revealed that he had auditioned for the sketch, which Macdonald ultimately landed. While he noted that he “really wanted” the role, he admitted that it was “the best thing that happened to the show.”
However, Downey shed some more light on the situation, noting that prior to Macdonald entering the race, “the big competition” was between Franken and Maher.
The Real Time host “had the backing of [talent agent] Bernie Brillstein,” who was “very actively campaigning for Bill and against” Franken.
Funnily enough, Franken claimed he “didn’t know any of this.” Nonetheless, Downey said that Macdonald “emerged late.”
“Once I knew it wasn’t going to be you, I felt, well can it please be Norm Macdonald and not Bill Maher?” Downey told Franken, clarifying that it wasn’t “an anti-Bill Maher thing,” but that between the two candidates, “it was absolutely Norm.”
Despite Macdonald being selected, Downey said that he and the comic were eventually fired after taking the O.J. Simpson jokes too far, as Simpson was a friend of Don Ohlmeyer, a network executive, per The Daily Beast.
According to the outlet, Macdonald aired his grievances toward Maher in 2015, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he thought Maher was “completely unfunny.”
Macdonald passed away in September 2021 following a private battle with cancer, and Maher praised the late comedian for keeping his battle out of the public eye, per THR.
“So the fact that I didn’t know about this, nobody knew about this — good one, Norm,” he said during a 2021 appearance shortly after Macdonald’s death on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “He kept it to himself because he’s in show business. He’s here to make you happy.”
Listen to the podcast episode above.
