Rob Schneider says ‘SNL’ was ‘over’ after Kate McKinnon performed ‘Hallelujah’ as Hillary Clinton

CNN

By Marianne Garvey, CNN

“Saturday Night Live” veteran castmember Rob Schneider says the long-running sketch show was “over” after Kate McKinnon’s 2016 performance of “Hallelujah.”

In a conversation on Glenn Beck’s podcast, Schneider said that McKinnon’s post-presidential election cold open at the piano, during which she sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” dressed as Hilary Clinton, was the beginning of the end for the show.

“I hate to crap on my own show,” he said. “When Hillary Clinton lost — which is understandable. She’s not exactly the most likable person in the room. And then when Kate McKinnon went out there on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in the cold opening and all that, and she started dressed as Hillary Clinton, and she started playing ‘Hallelujah,’ I literally prayed. ‘Please have a joke at the end.'”

He continued: “Don’t do this. Please don’t go down there.’ And there was no joke at the end, and I went, ‘It’s over. It’s over. It’s not gonna come back.'”

McKinnon has often played Clinton on the show over the years, before announcing this past season would be her last on the show.

Schneider went on to talk about late-night hosts on television being openly partisan, saying they all have the same ideas.

“That’s how you know they’re not interesting anymore,” he said.

Schneider was hired as a writer on “SNL” in 1988 and was a main cast member from 1990 to 1994.

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