Seth Meyers Doesn’t Think ‘SNL’ Has Been Good for Democratic Presidents

I was pretty ecstatic when Kamala Harris appeared on SNL before the 2024 election. It feels like a lifetime ago, but I distinctly remember thinking, “This is it! She’s going to win!” But that’s what I already wanted. Additionally, I was excited because I had already decided to vote for her. To see her get such a pop by that liberal crowd made it feel like the world was making sense. It was clear, in my mind, that Harris was going to run away with the election. It might be close, but dagnabbit, she was going to win this thing, and everything was going to be better, and the watery fat surrounding my midsection was finally going to disappear on its own.

Republicans made a big stink about Harris’ appearance on the show. Trump’s pick to head the FCC cried foul, alleging that Harris’s appearance may have violated regulations, giving us an early look at the Trump 2.0 playbook. It’s wild, but it felt like I saw the moment the same way they did. This was going to lock everything down and win the election. No one can stop the Liberal bastion that is Saturday Night Live! Kneel before its mighty, king-making power! But that’s not what happened.

Harris did not win the election. SNL did not possess the magic powers I had given it in my mind. Seth Meyers recently appeared on Vulture’s Good One podcast and broached that very topic, via a pitch he had for SNL’s 50th Anniversary Show. “I wanted to have all the impressions of Democratic presidents come out and just thank the liberal institution of SNL,” Meyers explained. He wanted to get the impressionists together to say, “Thanks to your help, we’ve won 6 of 13 elections.”

It’s pretty bleak when ya lay it out like that! And, it makes you look at things a bit differently. There’s an argument to be made that SNL has done more to help Republican candidates (or, at least one). There’s a whole 30 Rock episode about an unlikeable candidate getting a bump because he appears on the fictional show within the show, TGS, and that was before Trump made his way down an escalator to ruin everyone’s lives. Saturday Night Live is not coming in to save the day; Quite the opposite.

“As much as people talk about how influential it is,” Meyers noted on the show, “[it’s] like sub-500. If you believe it’s truly the liberal media, it’s wildly ineffective.” He ain’t wrong! Does that mean I won’t get swept up in the magic if SNL brings out AOC in 2028 to thunderous applause? Absolutely not. However, I may return to this article to check my expectations and remind myself that there is no liberal media; At least not one with any power.