Four days after winning a United States Senate seat in Texas, James Talarico did something nobody had announced beforehand: he walked into Saturday Night Live‘s cold open as himself.
The sketch started with Sarah Sherman as Chuck Schumer and Kenan Thompson as Hakeem Jeffries celebrating the Democrats’ midterm results, which gave their party control of both the House and the Senate. James Austin Johnson’s President Donald Trump then took over the scene, working through a list of the newly elected Democrats and lamenting the “blue tsunami” that had beaten his party. When the list reached Texas and a nickname, “Talafreako,” the real Talarico, the 37-year-old senator-elect, walked on to loud cheers from the Studio 8H audience.
“That’s Senator ‘Talafreako’,” he said. He introduced himself with a joke about his own campaign’s fundraising texts: “Hi, America. I’m James Talarico, the guy who’s been texting you every day asking for $5.” He told Johnson’s Trump that he wanted to work together to make life better for everyday Americans, and then he turned the moment toward the show itself.
“It’s clear people want something new, they want something different. I’m talking, of course, about SNL’s cold opens. How many of these Trump freezes are they gonna do?” Johnson’s Trump answered with one word: “Infinity.” The two men then delivered the line together: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
The appearance carried a backstory that made it land a little harder. During Talarico’s campaign, two of his late-night interviews never aired on broadcast television. Back in February, CBS lawyers advised The Late Show with Stephen Colbert not to air an interview with him over Federal Communications Commission equal-time concerns, and Colbert posted the conversation to YouTube instead. In September, his Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview likewise went straight to YouTube. With the election over, those concerns no longer applied, as LateNighter points out, and when Talarico finally did reach broadcast late night, it was on the biggest stage of them all.
Druski hosted the episode, becoming the first digital content creator to host the show, with The Strokes as musical guest. Trevor Decker News flagged Druski’s hosting turn last month when NBC’s three-week run of shows was set. The full episode is streaming now on Peacock.
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