SNL Will Not Invite Trump or Harris Ahead of Nov. 5 Election — Here’s Why
Neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor former President Donald Trump should expect a call from Lorne Michaels this month.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Saturday Night Live mastermind rules out cameos by either presidential candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
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“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” Michaels tells THR, before adding: “You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”
Nine years ago, SNL welcomed Hillary Clinton and Trump onto the show; Clinton appeared in the Season 41 premiere, opposite Kate McKinnon, while Trump — who first emceed in 2004, in support of NBC’s The Apprentice — was tapped as host later that fall. But at the time, neither presidential hopeful had been declared their respective party’s presumptive nominee.
However, going further back, 2008 vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin made a cameo one month out from voters casting their ballots for either John McCain or Barack Obama. (As THR notes, the Obama campaign did not voice concerns about equal time.)
SNL Season 50 Hosts & Musical Guests
SNL currently has repertory player James Austin Johnson and former cast member Maya Rudolph representing Trump and Harris in political sketches. The Season 50 premiere, which aired Sept. 28, introduced Jim Gaffigan and Bowen Yang as current VP hopefuls Tim Walz and JD Vance, Andy Samberg as Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden. The episode earned a TVLine reader grade of “B.”
Relive Palin, Clinton and Trump’s previous SNL appearances below, then leave a comment and tell us if you agree with Michaels’ decision to keep Trump and Harris off the show this fall.
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