Donald Trump once called Saturday Night Live 'bad show'. Will SNL season 51 face Jimmy Kimmel Live-like consequence?

Saturday Night Live is back as SNL season 51 will start airing from tonight. Hanging over the new season is a specter of political strife that has rippled through late night TV. Last month, executives at Disney, ABC's parent company, pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" off the air after Kimmel made comments during his show about the fatal shooting of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. After the comments, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, suggested that his agency could take action against the network.

The suspension was short-lived and Kimmel returned after about a week, but the incident set off a national debate about free speech.

In July, CBS, citing economic issues, announced that "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" would go off the air next May. Colbert is one of the most prominent critics of President Donald Trump, and the news came at a time when the network's corporate parent, Paramount, needed the government's approval for a merger with the media company Skydance. The merger was made official in August, and questions linger about whether CBS' decision was inspired by political considerations, not just financial reasons.


"SNL" is topical by nature, and often riffs on or parodies the news of the week, including -- or maybe especially -- political flash points. And Trump has had a long history of disparaging the show (as he has with Kimmel's and Colbert's shows, and other late night programs) despite having hosted 'SNL' himself in 2004 and again in 2015, just months after announcing his presidential candidacy.

In a 2019 post on Twitter, responding to a cold open in which Alec Baldwin satirized Trump's declaration of a national emergency on the border with Mexico, the president wrote: "Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!"

On Truth Social in 2022, he called "SNL" "a bad show that's not funny or smart," and wrote that Michaels was "angry and exhausted." "The ratings are lower than ever before, and the show will probably be put to 'rest,'" Trump wrote.

Kate McKinnon, among the most acclaimed 'SNL' alums, recently commented on Michaels' ability to speak to Americans during difficult moments.

"Every time there has been a national tragedy that has demanded a sincere cold open, that's him," McKinnon said on last week's episode of "Hot Ones," the YouTube interview show. "It's his idea. Not just to do it but what it actually is. That's just, that's his heart. That's him knowing instinctively how to respond to the country."

FAQs

Q1. Where can we watch Saturday Night Live?
A1. Saturday Night Live can be watched on NBC.

Q2. When will SNL season 51 start airing?
A2. SNL season 51 will start airing from 11.30 pm (ET).