Saturday Night Live wrapped its run in the 2025 TV schedule with the departure of fan-favorite Bowen Yang, and with weeks still to go before the upcoming SNL hosts bring Season 51 back in the 2026 TV schedule, it's worth looking back at one of the standout sketches from last season: Maya Rudolph and Kamala Harris joining forces for a skit that has an unexpected connection to Beyoncé herself. Rudolph opened up about that SNL cold open from late 2024 with some background on how it came together with the then-presidential candidate.
The sketch originally aired on NBC on November 3, 2024, which viewers may remember as just three days before the election that would determine whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump would be the next President of the United States. SNL pulled out all the stops for the cold open, with Andy Samberg playing Doug Emhoff, Dana Carvey playing Joe Biden, and Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz. The biggest surprise, however, was that Harris turned up herself for a back-and-forth with Maya Rudolph, who was reprising her own impersonation of the Vice President.
Months after that sketch aired, Maya Rudolph spoke with EW about how the cold open "came together very quickly." She said:
I was once again inspired by Beyoncé because she was part of Kamala’s campaign in Houston. I jokingly said to Lorne [Michaels, series creator], ‘How am I gonna play both?’ I think the show was off that week, and so he made a call and the next thing I know, he said, ‘Beyoncé’s not available, but Kamala would love to do it.’
Who else in the entertainment industry other than SNL creator Lorne Michaels could just make some calls to not only find out if Beyoncé would be available, but to secure the Vice President of the United States (who would potentially be elected as the first female POTUS just days later) for a cameo? Harris later revealed how she felt about Rudolph's impersonation of her, and was sporting a big smile in that pre-Election Day episode, which is available streaming now with a Peacock subscription. Rudolph continued:
In all the years that I worked on the show, it was normal for any of the candidates to come through the studio and appear when they were running. So I was hoping the whole time that she would come, but we really had no indication that she would. … She wasn't even there for dress rehearsal. We did a dress with Ego [Nwodim], thankfully. Once Kamala got there, we went through the cards with her and we just did it. And that was her doing it for the first time on air.
There were a lot of moving pieces with the sketch, with Lorne Michaels evidently recruiting some of Rudolph's fellow former SNL for brief guest spots. Fortunately, Harris did make it in time for her part in the sketch, which wouldn't have been nearly as memorable with Ego Nwodim playing the VP. Excellent as Nwodim was before her exit after Season 50, there's a reason why the sketch featuring the real-life candidate racked up more than 10 million views.
For Maya Rudolph, it was a standout experience out of all her time on the comedy series:
[It was] unlike any other experience I've had [on the show]. Those are the moments where you think, ‘Wow, I'm so lucky to be here and witness this. You can feel that electricity in the room and the crowd responding to that.'
If you missed the sketch at the time or just haven't watched it back since Maya Rudolph made the most of the world deciding she'd play Kamala Harris again, you won't have seen the crowd responding so enthusiastically that the VP's first lines were drowned out. Take a look:
That November 2024 episode was the last time that Maya Rudolph appeared on Saturday Night Live as Kamala Harris at the time of writing, although she did appear in other roles in SNL50: The Anniversary Special. You can revisit her years on the comedy show on Peacock, as she was a member of the cast from 2000 - 2007. She has also returned to host SNL three times so far.
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