--- title: NBC Offering Equal Time After Trump SNL Appearance description: After Donald Trump hosted Saturday Night Live at the beginning of November, NBC is offering equal air time to other Republican candidates. canonical: https://time.com/4122280/saturday-night-live-donald-trump-equal-time/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-20T16:24:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:53.158Z article:section: Politics og:title: NBC Offering Equal Time After Trump SNL Appearance og:description: He appeared onscreen for just over 12 minutes. og:url: https://time.com/4122280/saturday-night-live-donald-trump-equal-time/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9d21b4ee43ace67/698870a45f570f6408b1e493/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump during the "Saturday Night Live" monologue on Nov 7, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NBC Offering Equal Time After Trump SNL Appearance twitter:description: He appeared onscreen for just over 12 minutes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9d21b4ee43ace67/698870a45f570f6408b1e493/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NBC Offering Equal Time After Trump Appearance on 'Saturday Night Live' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 20, 2015 4:24 PM UTC  Donald Trump during the "Saturday Night Live" monologue on Nov 7, 2015. Donald Trump during the "Saturday Night Live" monologue on Nov 7, 2015. Dana Edelson—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 20, 2015 4:24 PM UTC Since Donald Trump hosted _Saturday Night Live_ at the beginning of November, NBC is offering equal air time to other Republican candidates. Trump appeared on-camera for just over 12 minutes on November 7, so NBC is proposing giving candidates 12-minute time slot between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Nov. 27 and 12 minutes during the _Saturday Night Live_ time period on Saturday Nov 28, [_Variety_ reports](http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/donald-trump-saturday-night-live-equal-time-nbc-2-1201645106/). Candidates John Kasich, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore had all [requested equal time](http://time.com/4116676/gop-equal-time-nbc/) after Trump’s appearance. According to _Variety_, at least two campaigns have received the offer and are currently considering it. FCC regulations call for equal opportunities granted to qualified candidates for public office, which enabled the candidates to request 12 minutes of airtime on an NBC station, though does not mean they would appear on _Saturday Night Live_. Trump garnered the [biggest ratings](http://time.com/4104120/trump-snl-ratings/) for the sketch comedy show since 2012. **Read Next:** [_Donald Trump Played It Safe on_ ](http://time.com/4103978/donald-trump-saturday-night-live-review/)[Saturday Night Live](http://time.com/4103978/donald-trump-saturday-night-live-review/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4122280/saturday-night-live-donald-trump-equal-time/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4122280/saturday-night-live-donald-trump-equal-time/"},"headline":"NBC Offering Equal Time After Trump Appearance on 'Saturday Night Live'","datePublished":"2015-11-20T16:24:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:53.158Z","description":"After Donald Trump hosted Saturday Night Live at the beginning of November, NBC is offering equal air time to other Republican candidates.","url":"https://time.com/4122280/saturday-night-live-donald-trump-equal-time/","keywords":["2016 Election","Television","Saturday Night Live","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9d21b4ee43ace67/698870a45f570f6408b1e493/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9d21b4ee43ace67/698870a45f570f6408b1e493/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump during the \"Saturday Night Live\" monologue on Nov 7, 2015.","caption":"Donald Trump during the \"Saturday Night Live\" monologue on Nov 7, 2015.","creditText":"Dana Edelson—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4122280/saturday-night-live-donald-trump-equal-time/","name":"NBC Offering Equal Time After Trump Appearance on 'Saturday Night Live'"}}]}] ```