--- title: Donald Trump Thinks 'Saturday Night Live' Will Be Canceled description: President-elect Donald Trump called Saturday Night Live a “terrible show” and suggested the program is on its way to being canceled. canonical: https://time.com/4593526/donald-trump-person-of-the-year-saturday-night-live/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-07T13:23:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:29:29.921Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Thinks 'Saturday Night Live' Will Be Canceled Soon og:description: "Who knows how long that show is going to be on?" og:url: https://time.com/4593526/donald-trump-person-of-the-year-saturday-night-live/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4f349a94f432721/6988b20f7cdbac7764d567dd/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Saturday Night Live - Season 41 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Thinks 'Saturday Night Live' Will Be Canceled Soon twitter:description: "Who knows how long that show is going to be on?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4f349a94f432721/6988b20f7cdbac7764d567dd/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Thinks _Saturday Night Live_ Will Be Canceled Soon > 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 [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 7, 2016 1:23 PM UTC  Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" during the monologue on Nov. 7, 2015. Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" during the monologue on Nov. 7, 2015.NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 7, 2016 1:23 PM UTC [President-elect Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/?xid=homepage), who was revealed Wednesday as TIME’s 2016 [Person of the Year](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/?xid=time%5Fsocialflow%5Ftwitter), called _Saturday Night Live_ a “terrible show” and suggested the long-running sketch comedy program is on its way to being canceled. [Trump been critical of the show](http://time.com/4589807/snl-donald-trump-twitter/) and of actor [Alec Baldwin’s signature impersonation of him](http://time.com/4577916/alec-baldwin-snl-donald-trump/), recently [taking to Twitter](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/805278955150471168) to call the show “unwatchable” and “sad.” He doubled down on his negative review Wednesday during a phone interview on the _Today_ show just moments after TIME’s selection of him as Person of the Year was revealed on the show. “I don’t think it’s good,” Trump said when asked about Baldwin’s portrayal of him. “I like him as an actor, but I don’t think his imitation gets me at all, and it’s meant to be very mean-spirited… and I don’t like it.” “Frankly, the way the show is going now… who knows how long that show is going to be on?” he added. “It’s a terrible show.” The Emmy Award-winning show on NBC premiered in 1975 and entered its 42nd season this fall. Trump on Wednesday also defended his frequent use of Twitter, which he called a “modern day form of communication” and a way for him to get out information faster than a press release and “more honestly” than through news outlets. Every year TIME editors choose the Person of the Year, a selection of the person who most influenced the news, for better or for worse. Trump is called the “President of the Divided States of America” on TIME’s cover—a title he said did not offend him. “I’m not President yet. I didn’t do anything to divide,” he said. “We’re going to put it back together and we’re going to have a country that’s very well healed. We’re going to do a lot of great things. It’s going to be something very special.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4593526/donald-trump-person-of-the-year-saturday-night-live/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4593526/donald-trump-person-of-the-year-saturday-night-live/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Thinks Saturday Night Live Will Be Canceled Soon","datePublished":"2016-12-07T13:23:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:29:29.921Z","description":"\"The way the show is going now... who knows how long that show is going to be on?\"","url":"https://time.com/4593526/donald-trump-person-of-the-year-saturday-night-live/","keywords":["Person of the Year topic","Television","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4f349a94f432721/6988b20f7cdbac7764d567dd/donald-trump-snl-saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4f349a94f432721/6988b20f7cdbac7764d567dd/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":"Saturday Night Live - Season 41","caption":"Donald Trump on \"Saturday Night Live\" during the monologue on Nov. 7, 2015.","creditText":"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":"/tag/person-of-the-year-2/","name":"Person of the Year topic"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4593526/donald-trump-person-of-the-year-saturday-night-live/","name":"Donald Trump Thinks Saturday Night Live Will Be Canceled Soon"}}]}] ```