Another common topic of Macdonald's jokes was O. J. Simpson after his arrest and trial for murder; one example was "A down-and-out O. J. Simpson... has decided to go back to doing what he does best: killing people." "SNL" writer Jim Downey recalled that "we did, like three solid years of, like, 60 shows of O.J. jokes in a row". Macdonald made his final appearance as "Weekend Update" anchor in December 1997, after NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer—a longtime friend of Simpson, who had previously told Michaels to not let his friendship affect the show—demanded his dismissal from the segment, despite Michaels's protest that making the change in the middle of the season would be difficult for the show. Ohlmeyer told MacDonald that he was fired because he was not funny.