NBC Faces Scrutiny Over Kamala Harris’s SNL Appearance Amid Equal Time Rule Controversy

Clear Facts

• NBC potentially breached the FCC’s “Equal Time” rule by featuring Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live.
• Lorne Michaels, SNL’s creator, previously stated that real-life candidates would not be featured on the show due to election laws.
• FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr highlighted the violation, emphasizing the rule’s requirement for equal access to airwaves for all candidates.

NBC has found itself in a controversial spotlight after Vice President Kamala Harris made an appearance on Saturday Night Live just days before the upcoming election. This move has raised questions about whether the network violated the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “Equal Time” rule, which mandates that all legally qualified political candidates must be given equal opportunities on broadcast television.

Harris participated in the show’s “cold open” alongside Maya Rudolph, who is known for her impersonation of the Vice President. This setup mirrored former President Donald Trump’s appearance on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon back in 2015.

Interestingly, NBC had previously declared that it would not feature either of the main candidates on the program. Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL, had made it clear in an interview that he had no intention of reaching out to the candidates before the 2024 election.

“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” Michaels stated.

He further explained the complexity of the situation, noting, “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.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump and later reappointed by President Biden, took to social media to express his concerns about NBC’s actions. He emphasized that the “Equal Time” rule is designed to ensure fair access to the airwaves for all candidates, except in cases of bona fide news exemptions.

The rule specifies that “equal opportunities generally means providing comparable time and placement to opposing candidates; it does not require a station to provide opposing candidates with programs identical to the initiating candidate.”

With no time left for Trump to appear on SNL, the situation has drawn parallels to his 2015 appearance on the show, which was met with backlash from critics who argued it “normalized” him.

As the debate continues, the implications of NBC’s decision could have far-reaching effects on how media networks handle political appearances in the future.

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