“I’m the winner! The winner is me! Landslide!” Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Veep”) declared after winning the SAG Award for Best Comedy Actress on Sunday. While she was parodying President Donald Trump at the podium, she might have also had Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) on her mind. A week ago we asked our readers if McKinnon was eligible to compete, would she have won the SAG Award? Overwhelmingly 75% of voters believed the Hillary Clinton impersonator would have won, while 21% believe she would’ve at least been nominated and only 4% thought she would have been snubbed.
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Unfortunately, McKinnon is ineligible due to long-standing rules that classify “Saturday Night Live” as a “late-night” show; such programs are not able to compete for Screen Actors Guild consideration. That is particularly puzzling considering last year’s surprise nomination for “Key and Peele” as Best Comedy Ensemble. At SAG, “Key and Peele” is classified as a “sketch” show and can thus compete in the comedy races. I believe that the governing board needs to adjust “SNL” classification so the show and its players are eligible to compete, and it looks like 75% of our readers agree with me.
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McKinnon has been on a roll recently, winning the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Supporting Actress where many other “SNL” alumni and sketch players have failed. Then at the Critics’ Choice Awards she was surprisingly nominated for Best Comedy Actress and won, taking down the five-time Emmy champ Louis-Dreyfus along the way. When you consider the number of awards McKinnon has racked up, a SAG nomination should’ve been an easy hurdle to clear.
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