Norm McDonald Fired

Almost every moment Norm MacDonald spent hosting “Weekend Update” joke was a shocking moment — he was fearless in going after sacred cows, and delighted in crossing lines. But he got in the most trouble for a barrage of jokes calling O.J. Simpson a murderer. Both MacDonald and SNL writer Jim Downey feuded with NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, a friend of Simpson’s who insisted the jokes weren’t funny. 

Both MacDonald and Downey were fired in 1998. Downey said on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast earlier this year that MacDonald could have saved his own job, but refused to throw Downey under the bus.

“The network went to Norm and said, ‘We want to get rid of Jim Downey and we just want you to know. You’re cool with that, right?’ And he said, ‘No. No. You can’t fire him. If you fire him, I quit.’ … He said, ‘I’m not doing it without him.'”

Downey said MacDonald, who died in 2021, never told him about it, and he only learned from NBC executives.