Kamala Harris ‘getting a kick out of’ resurgence of ‘Veep,’ Julia Louis-Dreyfus says
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election, the HBO satirical comedy “Veep” has gone viral and reportedly seen a 353% surge in viewership numbers.
“It’s been a wild thing to witness. Viewership went up something insane like 350%,” series star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 63, told Entertainment Weekly.
“I’m delighted,” the former “Seinfeld” star added. “I’m happy people are getting a kick out of it. And I know that Kamala Harris is — big time.”
“Veep,” which aired from 2012 to 2019, stars Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, the vice president of the United States who later becomes president.
In real life, President Biden, who had been running for re-election, announced his departure from the race on July 21, and endorsed Harris shortly thereafter.
The next day, on July 22, the first season of “Veep” (streaming on Max) had 2.2 million minutes viewed — in a big jump from 486,000 minutes of viewership the previous day, according to entertainment data company Luminate.
In the show, Selina was a senator who had an unsuccessful presidential bid. Her run ended with her becoming the running mate of the man who defeated her in the Democratic primary.
In Season 2 of “Veep,” it’s revealed that the president (who is never shown onscreen) won’t run for re-election, and Selina decides to run.
After the similar Biden-Harris situation, social media users started sharing a “Veep” clip depicting Selina declaring she’ll run. This prompted show creator Armando Iannucci to comment, “Still working on the ending.”
In an interview published July 24, “Veep” showrunner David Mandel told the Hollywood Reporter, “There are two types of people doing ‘Veep’ memes right now. There are people really enjoying Selina’s moment of telling her staff that she’s running for president; there’s a joy there that’s fun and nice and celebratory.”
“And then there are a-holes who are using it differently,” Mandel went on. “Surprise surprise, Kamala is a woman of color, and it seems like those people are using it as a simple way of insulting her. So I don’t like that part.”
Mandel said he thought audiences are talking about “Veep” now more than they did when it was airing.
“Today, there may be more people checking out ‘Veep,’ and I can’t think of anything better. I hope they are enjoying. The crazier politics gets, the more ‘Veep’ holds up!”
When he was asked whether the new resurgence means there could be more “Veep,” he said he has mixed feelings.
“It’s that double-edged sword of, yeah, of course I want to come back. I loved every second of it. I loved that cast. I loved what we did. But, can you imagine? We’re right back to imagining if we were trying to film a season right now and all of this was going on,” he said.
“We’d be throwing scripts in the garbage left and right. We need things to calm down and heal before ‘Veep’s’ sort of horrible outlook on the world returns,” he continued.
Mandel added, “I think it’s funnier when things are going well and we joke about how bad things are than when things are going badly. But boy, it makes me think a lot about the show in a really good way. I love people taking about the show and sharing it.”
