SNL's Election Ratings Crater As 89% of Jokes Targeted Donald Trump

The viewership for "Saturday Night Live" cratered during the 2024 election cycle. 

In the weeks leading up to the election, the show averaged just 5.4 million viewers, down 25% from the 2020 election cycle and nearly a third from 2016. 

This past Saturday, the first post-election installment of the program, "SNL" drew only 4.4 million viewers. In 2016, the post-election show edition averaged 9.2 million viewers.

What's the blame for the decline? 

Cheesy humor? Cable cutting? Social media? The lack of big-name performers? Yes – and the show's shameless left-wing bias fracturing its relationship with half of the country.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) and US actress Maya Rudolph participate in "Saturday Night Live" (SNL) live late-night sketch comedy show at NBC studios in New York City on November 2, 2024. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Last week, a Media Research Center study found that 89% of election jokes on "SNL" in the fall targeted Donald Trump. Eight-nine percent.

"On October 12, the quantity of Trump jokes started to pick up as he was joked about eight times to Harris’s one. Vance was targeted twice while Walz escaped ridicule. On the 19th, Trump jokes outnumbered Harris jokes 9-0, while both VP contenders escaped Jost and Che’s jesting," the study pointed out.

"After a week off, the final pre-election episode on November 2 featured nine Trump jokes and only one Harris joke."

Those numbers do not represent satirical sketch comedy. They represent a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, on the same level as late-night television. Granted, an early MRC study found that 98% of the daily late-night comedy shows’ jokes targeted Trump. Ninety-eight percent.

Further, the FCC commissioner accused "SNL" in November of violating the FCC's Equal Time rule by inviting Harris on the show but not Trump. 

"This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule," said Brendan Carr. "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."

Now, "SNL" should make fun of Trump and the Republicans. We don't deny that. It's the fear of also mocking the Democratic Party that warrants criticism.

Kamala Harris provided "SNL" the fodder. She repeatedly answered questions with "I grew up in the middle class," dodged the media until she couldn't, refused to name specific policies, cackled like a hyena, and subverted the democratic process via installment atop the ticket.

Yet "SNL" ignored all of it.

Her running mate Tim Walz is a real-life SNL character. He put tampons in boys' bathrooms, deserted his soldiers, let cities in Minnesota burn in the name of George Floyd, and lied about his football coaching career. 

"SNL" mentioned none of that, either.

Under the NBC umbrella, "SNL" not going to change. Thus, there's a market demand for an alternative – a sketch comedy show that is not scared of making fun of the Democratic Party, a show that does not fear cancel culture or whiny left-wing bloggers.

Fox News has found great success in countering late-night television with "Gutfeld." Some network or streaming service ought to take the same approach in creating a counter to "SNL."

The opportunity is there, so long as the show is funny and unafraid.