NBC Tried to Prevent Norm Macdonald From Going on Letterman After He Was Fired

Norm Macdonald’s ousting remains one of the most infamous moments in the history of Saturday Night Live. As most of us are well aware, NBC booted the Dirty Work star off the “Weekend Update” desk and eventually fired him from the show altogether, purely due to the petty whims of network executive Don Ohlmeyer.

Why? Seemingly because Ohlmeyer was good friends with O.J. Simpson, whereas Macdonald… wasn’t.

Legendary SNL writer and future Christmas Adventurer Jim Downey, who lost his SNL job along with Macdonald, recently went into detail about the incident during a chat with David Letterman.

In a video posted to Letterman’s YouTube channel, Downey pointed out that the late Macdonald was a lot like Letterman, his comedy idol. “You guys were willing to do stuff that you loved, and not be troubled unduly by the audience not getting it or liking it,” he observed.

After NBC “forced out” Kevin Nealon from SNL, Downey wanted Macdonald to take over “Weekend Update.” Downey pitched the comedian to Ohlmeyer, who also weighed giving the gig to either Al Franken or Bill Maher. But that meeting came to an abrupt end because “visiting hours at L.A. County (Jail) were starting and Don was going to visit The Juice.”

Even though Macdonald’s boss was tight with the accused murderer, once the comic got the job, he still didn’t hold back from joking about the trial of the century.  “When Norm took over ‘Update’ in the fall ‘94, we did at least one O.J. joke for each of our 22 shows,” Downey explained.

After the murder trial ended, Macdonald continued to hammer O.J. in its aftermath until, eventually, Downey received a blunt phone call from one of the show’s producers, informing him, “Two things: Chris Farley's dead and you and Norm are fired." 

Shortly after leaving “Update,” while technically remaining an SNL cast member, Macdonald appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. During the now iconic sit-down, Macdonald confirmed that Ohlmeyer fired him after telling him that he wasn’t “funny.” 

“Don’t let this pinhead push you around, for heaven’s sake,” Letterman urged his guest. 

But NBC clearly didn’t want Macdonald spilling any tea on a competing network.

“You called up Norm and said, ‘Hey you should do the show,’” Downey recalled. “And I said ‘Yeah, you should definitely do the show.’ And NBC was like, ‘You know what? We don’t think it’s the best idea. I’ll tell you why. The classy move is for you guys to just say nothing and, if asked, just go, you know what? It was just a mutually agreeable (arrangement).’ And I’m going like, ‘Why the Hell would we say that? What the Hell? Are you serious?’”

“And so Norm went to your show and in one of the most legendary appearances,” he added, also noting that Letterman wasn’t Norm’s only celebrity defender. Apparently, Jerry Seinfeld told an NBC exec: “Thanks, now we don’t have to watch the fucking show, because you just canceled the main reason to watch it.”

That two-second anecdote was funnier than anything in Unfrosted, to be honest.