As many as five Republican presidential hopefuls filed equal-time requests with NBC stations following Donald Trump’s hosting stint on the Nov. 7 episode of Saturday Night Live.
According to a pair of reports, which cited campaign sources, NBC has begun to make offers to those who have requested time, with GOP long shots Lindsey Graham and George Pataki being named specifically. NBC has offered a 12-minute window—Trump’s airtime on SNL was 12 minutes and five seconds—on Friday, Nov. 27 between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. and on Saturday, Nov. 28 during SNL’s usual time slot, which is between 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Along with Pataki and Graham, other GOP hopefuls including John Kasich, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore made requests.
An NBC spokeswoman did not comment.
According to the Federal Communications Commission’s “equal time” rule, broadcast and radio stations are required to offer an equivalent opportunity for candidates to appear on non-news programs. Usually in “equal time” cases, the requests are handled by the specific stations where time is requested, but one of the station general managers told Adweek the network was handling the requests this time.
Trump’s hosting stint on SNL averaged 9.3 million viewers, the show’s most-watched episode since 2013.
This story first appeared on Adweek.com as written by Tim Baysinger.