But overall, Trump was his usual, colourful and playful self: When Larry David explained that he had heard he would be paid $5000 to shout that Trump was a racist, Trump said he understood.
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The show kicked off with a cold open spoofing the recent Democratic candidates forum, featuring the surprise reappearance of Larry David to play Bernie Sanders.
“Who the hell is – oh, I knew this was going to happen”, Mr Trump responded in what was clearly a scripted sketch. The sketch also featured Donald Trump breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the camera.
Truth is, everything was part of the script. As Trump stood alongside his impersonators Darell Hammond and Taran Killiam, David protested from the audience. To put this in perspective, when Miley Cyrus hosted this season’s premier of SNL, she appeared on screen for roughly 22 minutes, which is nearly double Trump’s time in the SNL spotlight. “As a specialist”, Mr Trump said, “I can completely regard that”.
One of the brighter moments of the show was when Trump was heckled by Larry David, who called out, “Donald Trump is a racist”. “Having a politician in the midst of an active presidential campaign was always a dismal idea for Saturday Night Live, particularly a candidate with as much negative baggage as Donald Trump”, wrote The Hollywood Reporter’s TV critic Daniel Fienberg.
There were more protests on Saturday in New York hours before the show was broadcast, with demonstrators marching to NBC’s studio in Rockefeller Plaza.
National ratings with the average number of viewers watching the show with Trump and musical guest Sia will be issued on Thursday. In Spanish, they chanted: “The people united shall never be defeated” and signs declared SNL racist. “I like a lot of them, I respect a lot of them – I think everybody’s a threat”. The developer and media personality presided in April 2004, a few weeks after he debuted as host of The Apprentice.
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Trump’s SNL appearance was both a critical and commercial hit; according to Variety, the episode delivered the best ratings for the program in almost four years.
