FCC’s GOP Commissioner Slams SNL for Snubbing Trump and Inviting Harris: ‘Clear and Blatant Effort to Evade the FCC’s Equal Time Rule’

Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner on the FCC’s five-person governing body, slammed NBC for what he called an effort to “evade” equal time rules for political candidates when responding to Vice President Kamala Harris’s Saturday Night Live cameo.

Harris made a brief appearance alongside Maya Rudolph, who portrays her on the show, during Saturday’s cold open.

After the broadcast, Carr slammed NBC for what he categorized as an attempt to subvert FCC rules to help Harris by not offering former President Donald Trump and third-party candidates a spot on the show three days before the election. Carr said:

This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule. The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct – a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.

In three separate tweets, Carr made note of Trump’s 2016 guest-host spot on the show, which he said drew equal time complaints of their own.

Carr also noted SNL creator Lorne Michaels said recently he would not welcome any of this year’s White House candidates on the sketch comedy show unless they all agreed to come on while citing FCC rules.

Federal law requires that broadcasters provide comparable time and placement to all legally qualified candidates when the Equal Time rule is triggered.

With only days before the election, NBC appears to have structured this appearance in a way that evades these requirements.… pic.twitter.com/PjrgWCqsgy

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 3, 2024

Just weeks ago, SNL’s Lorne Michaels said that they *would not* be bringing any of the candidates on due to election and equal time laws:

“‘You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,’ Michaels said.” pic.twitter.com/xtfnNFXdfr

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 3, 2024

Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter last month none of this year’s candidates would appear on SNL before the election.

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

The FCC’s equal time rules state:

FCC rules seek to ensure that no legally qualified candidate for office is unfairly given less access to the airwaves – outside of bona fide news exemptions – than their opponent. Equal opportunities generally means providing comparable time and placement to opposing candidates; it does not require a station to provide opposing cancicates with programs identical to the initiating candidate.

Equal opportunities and other political-related benefits are available only to individuals who have attained the status of “legally qualified candidate.” These rules do not apply to cable channels or web-based video
or audio such as streamed video content, podcasts, or social media.