Montgomery promises to award $5,000 to anyone in the studio audience who utters the words “deport racism” or “Trump is a racist” on the air. Trump has used plenty of language deemed racist by minority groups throughout his campaign, including his famed candidacy announcement in which he famously called immigrants crossing the Mexican border “criminals,” and “rapists.”
Related: Add John Oliver to the list of people who have inspired angry Trump tweets
Protests have been ramping upp since Saturday Night Live confirmed that Trump would not just make an appearance on the show, as Hillary Clinton recently did, but would actually host. The change of heart by SNL broadcaster NBC follows the network’s decision to fire Trump from his show Celebrity Apprentice for his previous comments, as well as dropping the real estate billionaire’s Miss Universe pageants.
Montgomery told The Hollywood Reporter that he feels NBC and Saturday Night Live are just “doing it for the ratings,” calling the about face by the network a “pretty crass game.”
If anything, Montgomery’s move to put a damper on the appearance may actually be having the reverse effect. The risk of live heckles will undoubtedly result in many more potential viewers tuning in just to see what happens. Censors and security will be on ultra high alert to prevent it, which means there’s a good chance they’ll be able to halt any heckling before it happens, or at least rely on the delay to prevent any undesired audio from airing on the east coast broadcast. So the result may simply be bigger ratings for the show, and more exposure for Trump.
That said, it’s possible some Deport Racism 2016 supporters will manage to sneak by and find a clever way to make their voice heard on air before the censors can stop it. Indeed, it’s happened before, as reported by THR. Back in 1992, during Sharon Stone’s monologue spoofing her famous Basic Instinct chair scene, several individuals attempted to burst on stage, in protest of homophobia and misogyny. NBC guards managed to stop them, but those watching at home were still able to hear the kerfuffle and knew something was going on behind the scenes.
Montgomery, for his part, says he’s “hopeful,” so clearly some plans are in the works so that someone may come out at the other end of this weekend $5,000 richer. But either way both NBC and Trump will no doubt emerge winners, no matter what happens, thanks to the crazy publicity this will generate.
The episode airs this Saturday, November 7 at 11:30 p.m. (EST). Along with Trump as host, Sia will be the musical guest.
