Since its earliest days, Saturday Night Live has been a breeding ground for characters, and many of the sketch comedy's biggest stars have taken their most recognizable personalities to other mediums. (Some are on a mission from God.) Not all of those personalities have to be fictional, it appears, as actor Alec Baldwin has teased the possibility of his wildly embraced Donald Trump impression transcending its current SNL-only existence. Here's how the Emmy-winning actor put it.
I'm gonna do [Saturday Night Live] as much as I can, and there's discussions about other venues we might pursue to further express our gratitude and admiration for the Trump administration.
Now that is the kind of news that could be delivered from the Oval Office, or at least an oval office. To this point, Alec Baldwin has been tackling his exaggerated portrayal of Donald Trump in minimal doses during Saturday Night Live, generally through cold opens. Seeing him expand his performance to reach beyond the confines of the weekend mainstay would be pretty wild and assumedly welcomed by the show's fanbase. But how could it happen, and where would Baldwin go with it?
Perhaps Lorne Michaels could negotiate a deal with NBC to grant SNL's faux Donald Trump his own special on the network, possibly through an NBC News-style mockumentary. Or if NBC execs start to get antsy about going bigger with Alec Baldwin's impression of the soon-to-be-inaugurated Trump, maybe those conversations are being had with other networks or outlets for standalone projects. Even an NBC-owned channel like E! or Esquire would be fitting destinations, if not the most highly-rated ones.
Remember Will Farrell's George W. Bush impression on Saturday Night Live? That ended up becoming a limited-run Broadway show put on film as an HBO special. Alec Baldwin is no stranger to the stage, and HBO would be a splendid place to see the impression take more ribald risks. Of course, Funny or Die is another place where that could happen without having to wait for the Broadway stretch to be completed.
Or, of course, it could turn into an actual feature film of some kind. Didn't seem possible for Wayne Campbell or Pat, but those happened, as well as many others on both sides of the "is this really a good idea?" coin.
First "Don"-ning the blonde wig and suit for Saturday Night Live's Season 42 opener, Alec Baldwin immediately became THE reason to start talking about the show again, along with Kate McKinnon perfectly blandifying nemesis Hillary Clinton. Every subsequent appearance has been seemingly more celebrated than the last, and Donald Trump himself has weighed in several times, though definitely not in a celebratory manner. Thankfully, Baldwin confirmed we'll see him on SNL in the future in his talk with ABC News, so we'll be looking out for that really soon. (He's previously explained what would make him stop doing the impression, too.)
Saturday Night Live returns to NBC on Saturday, January 14, at 11:30 p.m. ET, with Aziz Ansari hosting, and Big Sean as the musical guest. You can catch Alec Baldwin hosting the game show revival Match Game on Wednesday nights on ABC. Head to our midseason premiere schedule to see everything else that's returning to TV soon.
