Saturday Night Live has often been the subject of criticism in conservative media circles for a perceived bias against Republicans, especially in the age of Donald Trump. Bill O’Reilly agrees that the show is biased, but admitted he was invited to host the show but was unable to make it work.
During his No Spin News and Analysis podcast Tuesday, O’Reilly mentioned the situation while describing President Joe Biden’s reasoning for not accepting an interview with Fox News for the Super Bowl pregame show.
“Biden blew off Fox for two reasons,” said O’Reilly. “One, he doesn’t like to do any interviews. He just doesn’t like to do ’em. Two, his far-left donors — (George) Soros and people — hate Fox and told him not to do it. Nothing anybody can do about it. However, in 2011, Saturday Night Live spoofed my Super Bowl interview with Barack Obama.”
O’Reilly then played a portion of the skit from SNL where he was portrayed by Jason Sudeikis.
“That was genuinely humorous,” chuckled O’Reilly. “There wasn’t a nasty edge to it. I remember back then, they invited me to host the show. I wanted to do it, but I would have had to rehearse the whole week and I couldn’t have done The O’Reilly Factor. So the Fox News people — the brass — said ‘We can’t do that. You’re over at NBC rehearsing all week for Saturday Night Live‘. My argument was it would reach so many people that it would be worth it to get that kind of publicity.”
“Anyway, I decided not to do it. I could have pushed it, but I didn’t. I get their point. They’re paying me, I’m supposed to be working for them, not running across the street working for NBC.”
O’Reilly added that while he would have enjoyed the opportunity in 2011, the offer wouldn’t be extended to him today, and he wouldn’t be inclined to accept it even if it was.
“When I told them I couldn’t do it, it wasn’t because of the material,” O’Reilly concluded. “Now? Saturday Night Live would never invite a person like me to host the show. Never.”
