Veteran

Ken Aymong, one of a handful of key lieutenants to executive producer Lorne Michaels at NBC‘s “Saturday Night Live,” made a surprise cameo on the program’s latest episode — in the credits.

Aymong, who retired from “SNL” in 2021 after joining the venerable program in the mid-1980’s, has returned to the show as a supervising producer for the show’s current 51st season, according to a person familiar with the matter. His name scrolled by during the show’s credits early Sunday morning as it closed out its second episode. Details on what spurred him to return to the fold could not immediately be learned, but Aymong had been brought back to help out with some of the landmark events in “SNL“‘s 50th season, which included a massive concert at Radio City Music Hall.

Aymong has long been known not for booking guest hosts or writing celebrated sketches, but for something perhaps more important: maintaining the business of the TV institution. ““I always look at the financial perspective of the show,” Aymong said in “Live From New York,” an oral history of the program by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. “I want it to go on forever.”

NBC declined to make producers available for comment. LateNighter previously reported on Aymong’s return to “SNL.”

Aymong’s return comes as “SNL” has been giving new duties to some of Michaels’ top deputies. Erin Doyle, a longtime producer, was elevated at the start of the season to the top echelon of senior staff. Erik Kenward, another member of that circle, has taken on head-writer duties this season with a band of other “SNL” veterans. Michaels, who turned 80 in November of last year, has given no signal that he wants to step back from the show he has managed and influenced for nearly half a century, but has given some indications that others will take up day-to-day duties he might once have done himself.

Michaels has developed a coterie of key aides over the years. In addition to Aymong, Doyle and Kenward, they also include Steve Higgins, another top producer who also works on NBC’s “Tonight Show” and Mike Shoemaker, a former “SNL” producer who currently runs “Late Night with Seth Meyers” behind the scenes. Others in the past have included Lindsay Shookus and Marci Klein, both of whom are no longer with the show. Aymong’s duties aren’t the glitziest, but are quite crucial as “SNL” manages its production budget for special effects, set design, and many other elements that help the show stand up under intense linear, streaming and social-media scrutiny week after week.