The star and executive producer talks to ET about Wednesday's festive return.
Kenan Thompson is ringing in the holiday cheer. The star of NBC's Kenan (and Saturday Night Live staple) prepares for the special Christmas episode, which, appropriately titled "Christmas," follows the team as they get ready for the annual holiday spectacular. But, problems arise when Kenan gets upset when Gary (Chris Redd) pursues a new client, Rick (Don Johnson) attempts to unseat Tami (Taylor Louderman) as the leader of the band and Mika (Kimrie Lewis) feels her work is going underappreciated.
"I feel incredibly blessed, incredibly honored to be surrounded by such a great cast and great writers and showrunners. But I'm really, really excited for the people to finally see what we've been working on, like piece by piece by piece and so many small little pieces to the puzzle that are all kind of coming together now," Thompson tells ET. "It's a huge team effort. So I'm really excited for everybody -- our team and crew -- to share with their family and friends. But for everybody else to see it and see what they think. Maybe I might be crazy because I really enjoy it, you know what I mean? I think it's funny and super entertaining and charming, and just a very warm experience."
Before Kenan kicks off its sophomore run in the new year, the crew has the holiday season to tend to. Watch an exclusive clip from the episode above.
"It's a celebration of Christmas on the 'Wake Up With Kenan' morning show. And in that there is a way for us to go through these character development kind of phases, basically," previews Thompson, who says Christmas is his "favorite" holiday. "Me and my brother, played by the great Chris Redd, get into a little tussle. And [come to] a nice realization that family needs family at the end of the day. Once again, shout-out to our art department, man, because they built an incredible Christmas town for this episode."
As for what the 43-year-old is looking forward to viewers experiencing when Kenan returns? "The laugh factor," he says.
"I want to make sure that people know that we're making a comedy as this is mighty humorous. When you're making a sitcom, especially on NBC, there's a lot to live up to. Like Friends was almost like the perfect sitcom for NBC and it was chock full of jokes and chock full of laughter and heartfelt moments. That's kind of where the bar is at in my mind," Thompson says.
He also praised his co-star, Johnson, whom he described as "great" and "super focused on being an actor." "When you watch his stuff, it's probably enchanting because he is so in it," Thompson explains. "He's very methodic like that. But just being around him and learning his sense of humor... Like, he cracks me up. He says some like really, really funny stuff randomly and we have good laughs about it. We have definitely a similar sense of humor. It might be old man humor, but it's awesome."
Kenan airs a special holiday episode Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Young Rock and Mr. Mayor will also premiere Christmas episodes at 8 p.m. ET/PT and 9 p.m. ET/PT, respectively. Kenan returns for season 2 on Monday, Jan. 3. For more, watch below.
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