NEW YORK — Four days after winning a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, Democrat James Talarico walked onto the Saturday Night Live stage, appearing unannounced in the show’s first cold open since the midterm elections.
The sketch opened with cast members playing Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries toasting their party’s gains, before James Austin Johnson’s version of President Donald Trump stopped the action to offer his own take on the results.
As the Trump character worked through a roster of newly elected Democrats and reached Texas, the real Talarico stepped in to applause. He poked fun at himself as the candidate who had pinged viewers daily asking for five-dollar donations, then turned the joke on the show itself, asking how many more Trump freeze-frame openings the writers planned. The answer from Johnson’s Trump: infinitely many.
Talarico closed the bit by delivering the show’s traditional opening line from New York.
The appearance was his first on a broadcast late-night program since he launched his Senate run. During the campaign, federal equal-time guidance for political candidates kept his earlier late-night interviews off network airwaves; those conversations were posted online instead. Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton on Tuesday.
Comedian Druski hosted Saturday’s episode, the first online content creator to do so, with The Strokes as musical guest. John Mulaney is set to host on Nov. 14.
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