The 51st premiere of “Saturday Night Live” should have ratings through the roof.
Donald Trump has guaranteed it.
Saturday’s show will be hosted by Bad Bunny, who’s making history. He’s the first performer since 1988 to host consecutive episodes. He closed last season in May and now opens the new one.
Bad Bunny’s popularity is huge. His new album is number 1 in advance sales on amazon.com, ahead of Taylor Swift’s coming release on Friday morning.
More importantly, Bad Bunny’s announcement that he will star at the Super Bowl halftime show in February has turned into an event.
Benito Ocasio — his real name — is Puerto Rican, which makes him a US citizen. Nevertheless, Trump stooge Corey Lewandowski has announced that ICE will blanket the Super Bowl looking illegal immigrants to detain, arrest, or deport.
Puerto Rican fans who might have hoped to attend the Super Bowl in person are now dissuaded from going, facing enormous risks. Even if they come with passports and papers, the Nazi-like ICE could disrupt their celebration.
Bad Bunny had already announced he would not tour the US under the current immigration cloud. He doesn’t want his fans to face legal trouble. Lewandowski said, “It’s so shameful they’ve [the NFL] decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game.”
This will no doubt be subject of some comedy for Bad Bunny this Saturday. “SNL” could not shy away from this topic on Saturday. This is because NBC — unlike ABC or CBS — doesn’t fear Trump’s retaliation. Trump already hates Comcast, which owns NBC, and the feeling is mutual.
By the way the last time a host on “SNL” helmed two consecutive episodes was Tom Hanks in 1988.
