Donald Trump may have refused to do a second debate with Kamala Harris, but Saturday Night Live had another idea for them to face off one more time before the election.
Maya Rudolph’s Harris and James Austin Johnson’s Trump met once again on NBC’s sketch comedy show, only this time it was on the Family Feud stage with Kenan Thompson’s Steve Harvey.
“I am Steve Harvey and I have spent the past 20 years hosting every show on TV as my alibi for them Diddy parties,” Harvey says. “Now tonight, we got two political rivals.”
He then proceeded to introduce the Democrats’ side, which included Harris (Rudolph), Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan), Joe Biden (Dana Carvey) and Douglas Emhoff (Andy Samberg). On the Republicans’ side, it was Trump (Johnson), J.D. Vance (Bowen Yang), Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) and a missing Melania Trump.
“It’s wonderful to be here, Steve. I love to see a man getting paid millions of dollars at his black job,” Harris says after being introduced by the host, who also pointed out her all-out media blitz this week, booking a number of high-profile interviews. “It’s been a hell of a week. I went on Howard Stern to reach the horny cab drivers. I went on The View for the horny moms and I also went on the podcast Call Her Daddy because I have a message for young women: you need to go to the ballot box if you want the government out your ballot box.”
Thompson’s Harvey later moved over to introduce the contestants on the Republican side, where he questioned where Melania Trump was. “It’s so strange,” Trump says. “I could have sworn she was standing right beside me about two years ago.”
They finally move on to the game, with the first question being “something that you keep in your glove compartment.”
“Steve, look, I was raised in a middle-class family. My mother raised my sister and me, all right. She worked hard and saved up and we had a second mother too,” Harris says as Harvey attempts to get her back on track: “OK, did that mother have a glove apart?”
Rudolph’s Harris finally answered the question, saying, “Oh, a Glock, Steve. A big ole Glock.” And the Democrats got control of the Family Feud board.
Samberg’s Emhoff was next and somehow got their team another point, saying, “I can’t top that. It was so perfect. I’ll go with the same answer. Steve, a Glock.” But it went downhill after with Gaffigan’s Walz and Carvey’s Biden’s answers.
The Republicans then had a chance to steal, with Harvey going to Trump first. “Well, Steve, I’ve never ridden in the front seat of cars so this question is very unfair,” the former president says before going on a long rant.
Thompson’s Harvey finally yells, “Show me dementia,” but that wasn’t one of the answers on the board, so the Democrats won the game.
Ariana Grande returned to Studio 8H on Saturday to host SNL for the second time after making her hosting debut in 2016. She was also the musical guest on Josh Brolin’s episode last season. Stevie Nicks was this week’s musical guest.
The Wicked star kicked off her monologue by emphasizing that she was “just hosting. I’m not gonna make this about me. I’m just gonna have fun, take it easy and, yeah, I’m just gonna keep it low key.”
But Grande, in fact, did not keep it low key and broke out in song, with included impressions of Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Gwen Stefani. Yang also joined her onstage at one point, wearing a classic Wizard of Oz costume of Glinda. “Bowen, didn’t anybody tell you? We cut the Wicked sketch,” Grande says.
“The other last thing I’m not gonna do is bring out some hot dancers to do some insanely high kicks,” Grande sings as dancers join her onstage. The “We Can’t Be Friends” artist continues to flex her vocals, singing, “If you’re looking for a diva, don’t look over here. ‘Cause tonight, I’m keeping it low key.”