Harris made a cameo appearance on the long-running late-night show, where she appeared with lookalike Maya Rudolph in the show’s cold open.
“I'm just here to remind you, you got this, because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors,” Harris, looking at Rudolph, told herself.
Reacting to the SNL skit, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr accused NBC executives of giving air time to Harris, and knowingly violating the Equal Time Rule, just days before Election Day. That rule, which dates back to the 1930s, requires radio and television stations to provide the same amount of time for competing candidates.
Thanks to Carr's public complaint, NBC reached out to the Trump campaign. The network played a 90-second Trump campaign ad that aired during a NASCAR race and an NFL game.
"NBC has structured this in a way that's plainly designed to evade the FCC's rules,” Carr wrote on X. “We're talking 50 hours before Election Day starts, without any notice to other candidates, as far as I can tell.”
Trump’s presidential campaign later said SNL did not invite Trump to appear on the show.
Back in October, “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels told the Hollywood Reporter it was unlikely Harris or Trump would appear on the show because of the equal time rule.
