Culture

Palin vs. Fey on SNL?

by mchawk | October 9, 2008 at 05:58 am

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Sarah Palin could be coming to Saturday Night Live, to go head-to-head with her comedy doppelganger, Tina Fey.

Could this be the Vice-Presidential debate we've all been waiting for?

Lorne Michaels, longtime executive producer of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," [...] said on Wednesday he wasn't actively seeking Palin, but that the McCain campaign called after the first skit, when Fey's Palin appeared with Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton on the show's Sept. 13 season premiere, to say they enjoyed it.

Palin told reporters on Tuesday she'd love to appear on the show with Fey.

"I love her, she's a hoot and she's so talented," Palin said. "It would be fun to meet her, imitate her and keep on giving her new material."

From the moment Palin was selected as John McCain's running mate, Michaels said he barely had time to consider the idea of Fey impersonating her. Others did it for him.

"The next day the doorman in my building said, `What a gift, you're going to have so much fun with Tina Fey,'" he said.

Through the first three weeks of the season, "Saturday Night Live" has averaged 8.3 million viewers, or 49 percent more than last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. The skits have also drawn tremendous Web traffic, with 9.3 million people watching an online clip of the "Clinton-Palin" segment. The "Couric interview" has been seen by nearly 7 million people, NBC said.

"She's made `Saturday Night Live' look, for the first time in a long time, like it's playing in the same satire league as Comedy Central, said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

Fey has been off "Saturday Night Live" for two years, but was the guest host last winter in the first show back from the writers strike, where she made a vivid defense of Hillary Clinton.

Richard Greene, a public speaking coach and author of "Words That Shook the World: 100 Years of Unforgettable Speeches and Events," said if he were a Democratic official, he'd be pulling any favor he could to keep Palin off "Saturday Night Live."

"She is so charming and so media savvy," Greene said. "When she has a script, she will completely seduce America."

Michaels is enjoying the ride, letting Fey know that she only has to impersonate Palin through Nov. 4.

But what if she is elected the next vice president?

"I think we'll find somebody else to play Sarah Palin," he said. "I don't think she's going to be playing Sarah Palin for the rest of her life."