What is the FCC Equal Time rule? Republican commissioner accuses SNL of breaking guidelines with Kamala Harris appearance

US Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris appeared on the recent Saturday Night Live, as the mirror image of her SNL alter ego, Maya Rudolph. However, her guest appearance on the show received pushback from the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Commissioner and Donald Trump appointee Brendan Carr wrote on X to criticize Harris' cameo, saying:

"This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time Rule."

He said that "unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns," they are violating the FCC guideline, which he called "biased partisan conduct."

The FCC Equal Time Rule requires American radio and TV broadcast stations to give political candidates "equal opportunities" in terms of air time ahead of the election. While it doesn't require the opposing candidates to appear in identical programs, the rule seeks to give them "comparable time and placement."

Carr further criticized NBC for making "a secret 180" with only 50 hours or so before the election in a follow-up tweet. He claimed that the network previously said that no candidates would appear on SNL. Carr also slammed the network, saying that they structured Harris' SNL appearance in a way that all other candidates are denied their "one week procedural right" to "request their Equal Time from the broadcast station."

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Donald Trump gets "Equal Time" from NBC following Kamala Harris' SNL appearance

After Kamala Harris' SNL cameo caused an issue with the FCC, NBC filed for an Equal Time Notice on Sunday. The Democrat candidate reportedly appeared on the show for 90 seconds "without charge," according to the filing. Hence, the Broadcaster was forced to comply with the federal fairness rules by giving Donald Trump equal air time to address the voters after the NASCAR race on Sunday.

CNN's media analyst, Brian Stelter, spoke about NBC's compliance with the FCC mandates on Sunday. In a post on X, Stelter noted:

"NBC stations ARE providing Trump with equal time, per the FCC's regulations, in the wake of the Harris cameo on "SNL" last night. A direct-to-camera appeal from Trump to "go and vote" aired during this evening's NASCAR post-race show."

Trump's video appeared to have been recorded sometime on Sunday as the former POTUS and Republican presidential nominee addressed the election, saying it is "two days away."

However, Equal Time wasn't the only controversy about Harris' SNL appearance. The Democrat presidential candidate has been accused of copying Donald Trump after her SNL appearance. Trump supporters took to X to point out that Harris' sketch was near-identical to what Trump did with Jimmy Fallon when he joined the host on an episode of The Tonight Show in 2015.

Harris and Rudolph's mirror scene, where they spoke in sync about their "belief in the promise of America," was the same scene that Trump and Fallon did back in the day when the talk show host asked Trump for advice. That said, Donald Trump wasn't the first presidential candidate to do the mirror skit, as it has been performed on Saturday Night Live numerous times with Ariana Grande and Mick Jagger.

Several other presidential candidates, including Trump in 2015, have been featured on the show during the previous election campaigns.