Actor Rob Schneider, the former “Saturday Night Live” star and outspoken supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, wants the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times to fund a talk show to rival “The View” that would appeal to conservatives, according to a report.
The “Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo” star met with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong at the newspaper’s El Segundo offices last month to pitch him on the idea, Oliver Darcy reported in his Status newsletter.
Schneider was joined by Cheryl Hines, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star who is married to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, the report added.
Soon-Shiong — who blocked the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris — invited the pair because he wanted to give them a tour of the newsroom as well as to highlight the newspaper’s video capabilities, Status reported.
It was during the tour that Schneider reportedly pitched Soon-Shiong on creating a conservative alternative to ABC’s lefty gabfest featuring Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin.
A spokesperson for Schneider confirmed that the comedian met with Soon-Shiong.
“Rob did have a wonderful meeting with Mr. Soon-Shiong and liked the new direction the LA Times is taking,” the rep said.
The spokesperson declined to say whether the two discussed teaming up on a show.
The Post has sought comment from the LA Times and Hines.
According to Status, the sight of Schneider, Hines — an avowed liberal — and Soon-Shiong walking through the Times offices had staffers “bewildered.”
When rumors spread inside the newsroom that the Times could be involved in partnering with Schneider, some journalists grew “understandably alarmed by the notion,” Darcy wrote in Status.
Schneider’s purported pitch comes after The Post reported exclusively that executives at ABC parent company Disney were in “panic mode” to find conservative voices to balance the mostly anti-Trump opinions expressed on the show following the election.
Last month, Schneider told Fox News that he was launching a women’s talk show for his new media company, “‘No Apologies Media,” that would serve as an alternative to “The View.”
“It will be the opposite because this will be entertaining. It’ll be funny,” he said.
Schneider has not been shy about expressing his approval of Soon-Shiong, who angered thousands of his readers as well as several of his editorial board members and newsroom staffers with his decision to kill the endorsement for Harris just week before the Nov. 5 election.
On his X account, Schneider wrote last month: “Guess what?! It’s OKAY to buy the [Los Angeles Times] again… You’ll see WHY SOON?!”
The caption was posted above a photo in which Schneider is seen reading a copy of the broadsheet.
Schneider — who has been critical of COVID lockdown measures and vaccines — wrote a follow-up post which read: “Congratulations to [Soon-Shiong] for making [the Los Angeles Times] a newspaper for ALL CALIFORNIANS again! I look forward to ALL of your NEW projects!”
The post was punctuated with an emoji of a smiling face with one eye winking.
Soon-Shiong, the South African-born billionaire who made his fortune in medicine and biotechnology, has sought to diversify his newspaper’s editorial board by adding Scott Jennings, a frequent op-ed contributor to the Times, to the editorial board.
Last month, Darcy reported in Status that Soon-Shiong told editorial board members to “take a break from writing about” Trump.