NEW YORK — Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," has a message for those convinced that the program's presidential campaign sketches have a secret political agenda.
"You know, they're jokes," he said. "And when people are confronted with jokes, quite often they will over-think it."
But as Michaels and his cast prepare to pull off six live shows in the next four weeks -- including three prime-time specials, beginning tonight -- "SNL's" creator doesn't hold out much hope that the show's political parodies will be viewed with equanimity.
"You see it on a partisan level now, where people have no sense of humor about the other side," he said, sitting in his 17th floor office in Rockefeller Plaza on Tuesday evening, munching on popcorn as he prepared for another late night.
"Saturday Night Live" is feeling the blow-back keenly this year. Viewership greatly increased when the NBC program put the 2008 race center stage, skewering the fawning news coverage of Sen. Barack Obama and spoofing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a cheerfully incoherent candidate.
An average of 8.3 million people tuned in for the first three shows this fall, 48% more than during the same period last year and 13% more than during the fall of 2004. That's far more than tune into other politically satirical programs, such as Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," which has averaged 1.8 million viewers a night this year.
But "SNL's" popular political sketches have also generated vociferous complaints from across the political spectrum. In the spring, the program was credited with helping shift public opinion in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s favor, especially after she made an appearance on the show right before the Ohio and Texas primaries. More recently, Tina Fey's doppelganger impersonation of Palin has emerged as a political Rorschach test: seen as all too true by gleeful Democrats and as a partisan hit by Republicans.
Michaels rejects the notion that the show favors any candidate.
"If we put on screeds, we would have no audience," he said. "If you want partisan, that's what Comedy Central is for."
He's amused by the influence attributed to the late-night variety show.
"We enhance the decision-making process," he said. "But I don't think people go, 'Oh, I saw that sketch, and now I'm determined to vote this way or that way.' "
