The downfall of Harvey Weinstein would seem like obvious grist for TV’s late-night comedy shows. Mr. Weinstein was facing three decades’ worth of allegations that he sexually harassed women; on Sunday, his own film studio fired him. The story seemed to parallel those of other powerful men who were confronted with numerous accounts of sexual misdeeds, including Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes and President Trump — all of whom were widely pilloried in the monologues of the late-night hosts and on shows like “Saturday Night Live.”

Yet since Thursday, when The New York Times published an investigation into the history of complaints against Mr. Weinstein, most of the late-night shows have avoided the matter altogether. “The Daily Show” addressed it fleetingly in an episode on Thursday night, and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” weighed in Sunday night.

The omission of Mr. Weinstein seemed especially glaring on this weekend’s installment of “Saturday Night Live,” a show with a history of responding rapidly to news events and which, in a 90-minute broadcast, has multiple opportunities to address a range of topics.

As it turns out, the show did have jokes about Mr. Weinstein ready — they just weren’t used, according to a person familiar with how Saturday’s episode was prepared.