Something of a vague answer, but Michaels has been in the game too long to give away too much. (That’s why, we can assume, he rarely does press.) For instance, he won’t weigh in one way or another as to whether the Colbert firing was political. However, he observes that “there’s two audiences now”: “There’s the audience that is [watching on] TikTok and YouTube, and there’s a linear audience. Both Seth [Meyers] and [Stephen] Colbert are heirs to David Letterman. You know what I mean?” He explains. “Conan [O’Brien] as well. They’re going to be doing that [type of show], just as I’m still doing SNL, as if everybody’s watching that night. But Jimmy [Fallon] does a lot of stuff that you can watch all day.”
From his long-held, fortified fiefdom at NBC, Michaels isn’t concerned about any kind of political censorship from networks that are worried about President Donald Trump’s opinion. And that’s despite the fact that Trump has threatened Comcast over Meyers’ show and called Fallon a “moron.” Asked if he thought the president’s ire would affect his shows, Michaels shrugs it off, saying, “Whatever crimes Trump is committing, he’s doing it in broad daylight. There is absolutely nothing that the people who vote for him—or me—don’t know. You know what I mean? And he is a really powerful media figure. He knows how to hold an audience. That’s a very powerful thing, and I think it was always underestimated. His politics are obviously not my politics, but denouncing [him] doesn’t work.”
That’s not exactly an answer to how Trump might affect political comedy, but again, Lorne Michaels typically plays things pretty close to the chest. He does share one revealing nugget, in connection to Colbert. He recalls the cancellation of The Smothers Brothers following their anti-Vietnam War sentiment as a “huge thing,” and formative to him personally. “I later asked Tommy [Smothers] to do [SNL], when I was planning the first six shows, and he said no,” Michaels says. “Later we talked about it, and he said, ‘I was still so angry.’ That was four years later. And I thought, Being a martyr is thrilling, and everyone’s cheering, and then it’s show business. It just goes on.” In other words, don’t expect Michaels to stick his neck out if Trump continues to remake the TV landscape in his image.