Don Roy King

My guest this week is Don Roy King - quite simply, a titan of television. The director of Saturday Night Live since 2006, he has directed more live TV than anyone else in human history and won eleven Emmy awards for it. So far, he’s been nominated for 28 Emmys overall as a writer, producer and director.

Beginning his career directing The Mike Douglas Show, he spent 21 years directing Good Morning America and CBS This Morning before he began helming SNL. In fact, he’s so good at directing live television, he’s even directed fictional live television - playing Daybreak director Merv in 2010’s Morning Glory and himself in Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born.

We discuss the changes in comedy he’s witnessed, directing Presidents Obama and Trump, what Lorne Michaels is like as a boss, what it was like to be in the director's chair of CBS This Morning on the morning of September 11th, 2001, and the power with which television - and live TV at that - can convey, explain and entertain.