While the cable and broadcast networks are capitalizing on the political season with strong ratings across the board, so have the comedians of Saturday Night Live. But as the final debate aired on Wednesday, and the final SNL debate parody aired last night, one question sticks out — why do SNL debate sketches look like they’re on CNN?
The NBC comedy show has used CNN’s graphics and lower thirds for every general election debate sketch this year. Of course, the debates air on every network — including NBC, MSNBC and CNBC under the NBC Universal umbrella.
We posed the question to CNN SVP of current programming Bart Feder. “We love that SNL chooses our look for their debate parodies,” he tells TVNewser. “Guess that means their writing staff must be among the millions watching CNN. We established ourselves as the leaders for debates in this election cycle long before these final four so it’s really no surprise that we’ve entered popular culture as the standard.”
We’ve asked NBC as well.
> Update: From a tipster — “SNL is missing out on the squiggly lines and expert pie-charts, though. Can’t have a CNN debate without that.”
Click continued to see last night’s debate sketch (featuring a three-and-a-half inch tall Joe the Plumber)…