After 19 seasons on Saturday Night Live, Kenan Thompson knows talent when he sees it! The comedian shared his praise for last week’s host, Kim Kardashian, while speaking in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife.com on behalf of his new Autotrader partnership. “Kim was great,” Kenan told HL. “You know, she spent all the time we needed her to spend with us, and she couldn’t have been better.” The Good Burger icon added that he was wildly impressed with creator Lorne Michaels‘ “hustle” to get the KUWTK star on the show in the first place.
“Just hearing the thought process that Lorne was going through to get her on the show — I knew by the time he was telling me, it was already a done deal, but he has a way of making you feel like you’re involved in the process,” Kenan explained. “He’s like, ‘So, we’re thinking about this. We’re thinking about maybe Kim Kardashian, I had a lunch with her and her mom and blah, blah, blah.’ And once I’m hearing that, I’m like ‘Oh, is a done deal. She’ll be on the show, and it’s all about whenever they set the date and tell everybody else, basically.'”
Kenan admitted Lorne’s “summer hustle” has always been iconic, for example, when he secured Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler‘s major SNL returns in 2019. “Those were the two GOATs that hadn’t come back to do it again. And it was this mystery of, will they ever? And all of a sudden, Lorne just pops up with like, ‘Yeah, I made those phone calls and they agreed, and it’s happening.”
Kenan, himself, is also a SNL GOAT in his own right after a long-running 19 seasons. While it’s always a big mystery as to who will be returning the following year, Kenan said that his goal is at least 20 seasons. “I’m inching and inching along, and this being 19, we’re already off and running,” he told HL. “I would love to get to 20 and then past that, I don’t know. It’s already such a nuance to stay on the show this long. I don’t know what makes sense past wanting to keep people happy and if time allows and things getting busy outside of SNL.”
Kenan is definitely busy these days with his new Autotrader partnership, as well! Buying your first car, or even your second, can be confusing and overwhelming, but Autotrader, with Kenan’s help, is making the entire car buying process easy and fun. Brought to life in Autotrader’s new ad campaign, “Finally, It’s Easy,” the new 15 and 30-second TV spots shows the comedian talking to his home’s AI-enabled smart devices and appliances, casually discussing how easy it is to buy a car from home with Autotrader.
“It’s cool to take the the car shopping experience and personalize it and put it in the palm of your hand,” the All That star said. “Autotrader is doing pretty amazing things with the way that they have kind of reinvented the car buying experience, especially for a first time buyer.