Saturday Night Live has had a lot to celebrate in recent months of the 2025 TV schedule for reaching the massive milestone of the 50th anniversary, but there's more controversy than celebration in the wake of the episode that aired on March 29. Musical guest Morgan Wallen caused more of a stir than host Mikey Madison did when he walked off the SNL stage at the end, when the credits started to roll over the usual cast hugs and high-fives. Fans were convinced there was drama, which was understandable after Wallen was previously booted from the show. The latest development? Kenan Thompson himself weighed in.
Thompson has seen more than his fair share of hosts and musical guests come on and off the stage of SNL, as he holds the record as the cast member with the longest tenure on the sketch show. Speaking with EW about the country singer's abrupt departure from the stage, Thompson said:
I don't know what goes through people's minds when they decide to do stuff like that. I don't know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way... You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping. I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.
If something strikes Kenan Thompson as out of the ordinary when he's currently on his 22nd season of SNL, then we can bet that it's a fairly big deal! After Wallen walking off started to go viral, his team shared his side of the story, which is that it was a simple mistake on his part, he'd entered and exited the same way over the week of rehearsals, and just didn't realize that he'd be on camera this time. An SNL writer chimed in with his two cents as well. The Kenan & Kel alum went on:
It's definitely a spike in the norm. We're so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody's saying, 'Good job, good job, good job.' So when there's a departure from that, it's like, hmm, I wonder what that's about?
Thompson said that Wallen "seems like a complicated individual," but they hadn't properly met during the course of the Season 50 episode or the singer's second chance after being bumped in 2020. He went on to share that "Prince did the same thing" when the music icon appeared on the show, then clarified that he's "not saying Morgan Wallen is Prince." Rather, that was just the sort of behavior Prince was known for, which isn't the case for Wallen. The former Kenan star elaborated:
But Saturday I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt. And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible. You know what I'm saying? It was a pretty visible thing.
If it seems like all the buzz about Morgan Wallen walking off is much ado about nothing and you haven't seen it for yourself yet, take a look at the clip of the end to SNL's episode hosted by Mikey Madison. Keep your eyes peeled for Kenan Thompson in the background as well!
Thank you, Mikey Madison and @MorganWallen! Goodnight! pic.twitter.com/FDlInhhHqbMarch 30, 2025
If you're curious about the full episode now, you can stream it from start to finish with a Peacock subscription. Morgan Wallen performed his songs “I’m The Problem” and “Just In Case” on the show without anything out of the ordinary happening, with the incident that fans are interpreting as everything from a faux pas to a deliberate snub happening at the very end.
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