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SNL Cold Open Welcomes Nikki Haley; Other Candidates Getting Airtime?

NBC's Saturday Night Live welcomed GOP candidate Nikki Haley to its cold open, and a whole lot of SNL fans aren't happy - and have a question.

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Well, we can definitely say that NBC's Saturday Night Live made some news tonight. From the interesting decision to have controversial ex-SNL cast member Shane Gillis host when the show returns on February 24th to host Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) addressing some brutal comments she made about this weekend's musical guest Jennifer Lopez during a 2020 podcast. And then there was the cold open earlier tonight – one that has a lot of SNL fans wondering if the long-running sketch comedy/music series plans on giving every 2024 U.S. Presidential Candidate equal comedic airtime. In a sketch that saw CNN's King Charles hosts Gayle King (Punkie Johnson) and Charles Barkley (Kenan Thompson) host a town hall for Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), real-life-ish Republican POTUS nominee Nikki Haley made a guest appearance as a "concerned South Carolina voter."

SNL
Image: SNL Screencaps

Over the course of the exchange between "Trump Lite" and the even faker Trump, Haley was able to ask Trump why he didn't want to debate her, giving Johnson a chance to make fun of Trump for confusing Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. From there, Haley made cracks about Trump's mental competency – even getting in an age joke against Trump and President Joseph Biden – in what we're assuming was an attempt by Haley's campaign to use SNL to humanize the candidate. Thankfully, the sketch was saved by Edebiri, who called out Haley for not seeing slavery as being the cause of the U.S. Civil War. "I was just curious. What would you say was the main cause of the Civil War? And do you think it starts with an 'S' and ends with a '-lavery'?" And though Haley responded, "Yes, I probably should have said that the first time. And live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" her response still sounded awkward as if she had been caught off-guard – and on the planet that I live on, "probably" isn't exactly a definitive word.

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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