The first episode of Saturday Night Live aired back in the fall of 1975. It is rather evident by now, Lorne Michaels created a juggernaut.
The show kick-started so many careers, the likes of Adam Sandler, David Spade, and countless others instantly come to mind.
It is also crazy to think about the talent the show said no to, Jim Carrey has to be atop that list, at the very least, he would go on to host the show on a few occasions later on.
That's the good... inevitably, like everything else, there's also a lot of bad. 'SNL' can create great exposure for anyone's career, though the honor of hosting can also backfire in the worst of ways.
We've seen countless hosts not only bomb during their skits, but some were just as hard to deal with behind the scenes.
That was the case with the man Lorne Michaels called the worst host ever... he wasn't receptive to ideas and his performance just wasn't funny.
It would lead to a painful ban, though as we'll see, he wasn't the first nor will he be the last person to get the cold shoulder from the iconic show.
The Bad Ones
There isn't a particular person that fails on the show, heck even a legendary comedian like Tom Green completely tanked. Green went off-script one too many times and he crossed a few boundaries during his skits.
Others were particularly unpleasant to deal with behind the scenes. Tina Fey recalls Paris Hilton turning down ideas while being ego-driven.
"She was awful. People never come in and say "I'm not doing that." So, this guy Jim Downey wrote a really really funny sketch, it was supposed to be Lorne Michaels just finding out that she had a sex tape and telling her she couldn't host the show because SNL has standards... So she was like "I'm not doing it!" and refused to come out of her dressing room. Also, you would walk down the hall and find what just looked like nasty wads of Barbie hair on the stairs... Her hair is like a Fraggle."
Athletes in particular also have a bad history on the show, which might be due to their lack of experience. Rolling Stone made mention of the worst hosts of all time, lots of those featured were athletes. Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Phelps, Ronda Rousey, and Lance Armstrong were among those that made the list. The popular choice will always be Armstrong as the very worst.
Others pushed it so far that they got banned from the show for good. Just ask Martin Lawrence who was too over the top, so much so that he was never invited back again.
Despite all these less than stellar performances, there is one person that sits alone as the worst ever.
Steven Segal Tanks
Steven Segal was hard flat out hard to watch. In April of '91, he hosted the show. Problems began backstage as the actor refused to work the ideas pitched. He instead wanted to rant about the things he dislikes... It all came across as messy and downright under-prepared.
Not only did Lorne call it the worst, but David Spade also agreed, "He was too cool and he had his image,” said Spade. “He couldn’t be relatable.”
"You have to sort of trust these 30 people you don’t know,” explained Spade. “A lot of people think we’re there to make fun of them. But if we’re getting you on the show to host, we all want it to work. And if you make fun of yourself — this is where it gets tricky — it will benefit you. And we promise you. And if you don’t, and if you fight it too much — that was [Seagal].”
Cast member Tim Meadows also chimed in, agreeing with Spade and Michaels, "He just wasn’t funny and he was very critical of the cast and the writing staff,” former cast member Tim Meadows later recalled. “He didn’t realize that you can’t tell somebody they’re stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday.”
It should be noted that Lorne has softened his stance in recent years, stating that SNL, in general, had an off week during Segal's gig.
Nonetheless, he wasn't the first person to struggle with Segal, it became a theme throughout his career.
Sources: Decider, Far Out Magazine & Rolling Stone