The Comedic Flop

Emily Mugno, Writer

As one of America’s presidential candidates hosted SNL, Donald Trump gave their show the highest ratings in years, rocketing with nine to ten million views for the night. The previous weekend was hosted by Tracey Morgan, having 6 million viewers.

The previous SNL show with the highest amount of viewers was on January 7, 2012 with Charles Barkley as the host and Kelly Clarkson as the musical guest. This was Trump’s second time, as he was the host in 2004 while he was on the show, “The Apprentice.”

Although this episode had millions of viewers, the comical side of SNL seemed to be lacking, as many of the hosts in previous episodes are professional actors and actresses. Prior to filming the episode, Trump vetoed some comical material that he thought was too “risqué.” The most political bit Trump did throughout the episode shot into 2018, imagining Trump as our president in the Oval Office, after defeating Isis and having Mexico pay for a wall to be built.

In the past ten years, SNL’s highest rating hosts have been successful men like Steve Martin in 2006 and Peyton Manning in 2007. Martin had a whopping 9.3 million votes while Manning had 7.9 million votes.