Panicked Bannon reached out to SNL to find out how he'd be portrayed after watching McCarthy destroy Spicer

For all of his claims that he doesn’t “need the affirmation of the mainstream media,” former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon cared so much about how “Saturday Night Live” portrayed him that he called cast member Darrell Hammond “to see what the writers were planning,” Wall Street Journal contributor Eli Stokols reports.

In a wide-ranging interview with CBS’ Charlie Rose, which aired Sunday on “60 Minutes,” Bannon insisted he doesn’t “care” about the media’s portrayal of him.

“I don’t need the affirmation of the mainstream media. I don’t care what they say,” Bannon said. “They can call me an anti-Semite. They can call me racist. They call me nativist. They can call me anything you want, okay? As long as we’re driving this agenda for the working men and women of this country, I’m happy.”

"This reminds me of a story I've had in my notes. File under: ‘Bannon doth protest too much,’” Stokols wrote on Twitter Monday, before throwing cold water on the Brietbart chairman’s claim. “In short, Bannon did care very much about how SNL would portray him, because he knew [Donald] Trump would see and care about it. He saw Sean Spicer's stock drop with Trump after he was portrayed by a woman and was concerned SNL might give him similar treatment.”

“So Bannon reached Darrell Hammond, the SNL announcer and only conservative cast member, to see what the writers were planning,” Stokols reported.

Bannon was apparently “relieved” to learn he would be portrayed as the Grim Reaper, pulling the strings of Alex Baldwin’s narcissistic, inept Trump, as opposed to the much more immediately embarrassing portrayal of Spicer by a woman. Trump reportedly "never liked" that a female was portraying his male press secretary.

The Grim-Reaper-as-Bannon also reportedly garnered negative reviews from the president. According to the Washington Post, aides in February said Trump was "especially upset by a sketch that cast White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon as the Grim Reaper manipulating the president—who was ultimately relegated to a miniature desk, playing dolefully with an expandable toy."

Watch video of SNL's Steve Bannon below, via NBC: