Lorne Michaels reacts to Ashlee Simpson “SNL” lip-sync debacle in unaired 2004 clip: 'There's just egg out there now'

"I think accidents happen. I think that's the nature of live television," Michaels can be heard telling "60 Minutes" journalist Lesley Stahl in the clip.

Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-sync incident shocked Saturday Night Live audiences in 2004, but one person was surprisingly unbothered by it: show creator Lorne Michaels.

In the latest episode of the 60 Minutes: A Second Look podcast — which features never-before-heard 2004 audio from Michaels, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, and Darrell Hammond — Michaels gives his honest reaction to the incident, which occurred during the Oct. 23, 2004, episode. This was coincidentally the same week 60 Minutes spent a week at 30 Rock doing a feature on the long-running sketch-comedy show.

"Oh, I think accidents happen. I think that's the nature of live television," Michaels can be heard telling 60 Minutes journalist Lesley Stahl, who pointed out that his job is to make sure accidents don't happen. "Right," he agreed, "you know, there's things that you're not in control of."

When Stahl expressed incredulity about how calm Michaels seemed, he used a sports metaphor to explain his feelings. "It's like the same way you'd feel if you're a ballplayer and it's rained out," he explained. "It really doesn't have anything to do with you. You don't control the rain. And I think in this case, it was much more 'what just happened,' which is, I think, what everybody else felt."

Michaels continued, "And I was in the control room going, well, I mean there's just egg out there now. I mean there was nothing to watch."

The lip-sync incident occurred after Simpson, the week's musical guest, had already performed her hit single, “Pieces of Me,” and returned to the stage for her second performance of the night, “Autobiography.” But when the wrong vocals played, repeating the song she sang earlier in the show, she famously panicked, briefly danced to cover up the error, and left the stage early.

Related: Ashlee Simpson reveals 'Pieces of Me' music video began her 'mullet era' due to 'impromptu' dye job

When Stahl asked Michaels if he thought the reputation of SNL was hurt by the incident, he said, "A lot will depend on your piece. But no, I don't think the reputation of the show was hurt. No, I think it's like, it happened, it was live, it kind of blew up. And lots of times that's happened."

Stahl pointed out, "Well, it blew up because everybody thought that she was lip-syncing, that you'd approved it, and you were trying to pull one over on us," to which Michaels joked, "Honestly, if I were to try and pull one over, it would be much more complicated than that."

Simpson reminisced on the SNL debacle and what she learned from the experience during an appearance on the Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen podcast earlier this year.

Related: Ashlee Simpson says SNL lip-syncing scandal was 'a humbling moment' that taught her 'how to get back up'

“I had done my rehearsal the night before and then I woke up the next day and I couldn’t speak,” Simpson explained. “I saw the voice doctor that day and I had two nodules beating against each other.”

She continued, “That day I said, ‘I will not go on, I don’t care. I can’t speak.’ Meanwhile, I’m not saying this. I’m writing it down, because I can’t talk.” But despite her protestations, Simpson said her record label encouraged her to perform to pre-recorded vocals. “My band’s never practiced this, this is not going to go well, I can't do this," she recalled thinking to herself at the time.

In hindsight, Simpson said she learned "the power of my no" and “the power of me saying absolutely not... that's what I would go back and say."

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“It was a humbling moment for me," she said. "I had the No. 1 song and everything was about to go somewhere. And then it was just like, whoa. The humility of not even understanding what grown-ass people would say about you, grown-ass men, awful awful things. It was so hard to learn how to tune that out, to find my strength, to get up and go again.”

Simpson would ultimately return to the show the following year to promote and perform from her second album, I Am Me.

Listen to the full podcast above.

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