‘They chose Peter Griffin over [Kamala] Harris??’: One hot talk show is flamed for declining a Kamala Harris interview
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But it seems like Hot Ones decided to be apolitical during one of the most important elections of all time. We can’t even like our chicken talk show in peace!
While talking about the election, Kamala Harris’ top campaign staff on Pod Save America confirmed that the campaign had reached out to Hot Ones to try to get her on the show. Not only did they ask Sean Evans and company but apparently the team at Hot Ones declined to have the current Vice President on the show. Now this makes me have a “hot” question I’d like to ask the booking department.
On the podcast, host Dan Pfeiffer hit the nail on the head while talking about the idea of Harris on Hot Ones. “Never in time has there been a candidate better suited” for Hot Ones. And he is right. Part of the joy of Harris’ campaign was her ability to connect to people using social media, talk shows, things like Saturday Night Live, and this would have been a perfect idea.
Stephanie Cutter revealed that the show didn’t want to “delve into politics” and that is why the denied the request. Oh, it must be nice to ignore the election to have celebrities on to eat hot wings! I wish I could simply ignore politics and not worry about my own rights being taken away.
The Harris team said that that was a common response from shows. Something they think that Trump didn’t have to deal with. “I don’t think he had the same problem,” Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said, going on to claim that Trump “certainly was able to tap into some cultural elements in ways that we couldn’t.”
Hot Ones was reportedly not taking either candidate
When they began discussing who would and would not allow the Vice President on the show, the topic of Hot Ones denying them came up. Pfeiffer was talking about how odd it was that Trump could get spots that Harris couldn’t over “politics” when she was the sitting Vice President. Cutter then revealed that some shows, like Hot Ones, were choosing to remain apolitical and were not taking either candidate.
“Hot Ones, which is a great show, they didn’t wanna do any politics, so they weren’t going to take us or him,” she said. “So that was the issue.” As one user on social media pointed out, this is an odd move by the show which did allow Peter Griffin on the series.
It is disappointing as Trump was allowed to reach a base on a deeper level (clearly) and things like Hot Ones could have greatly benefitted the Harris campaign. The show could have made a stance but remaining apolitical in an election year when a lot was on the table is disappointing to learn.
The Daily Beast reached out for comment from the show and they declined. So I guess it wasn’t just Harris that got a “no” from them.
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