ROCK STAR - FAUX PALIN AND REAL PALIN DOMINATE

A hilarious opening sketch featuring 30 Rock star and former Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton helped push ratings for Saturday Night Live to their highest level in six years and marked the best season opener in eight years. It's 7.4 rating and 18 share was 64-percent higher than last year's season premiere. Wrote Tom Shales in the Washington Post "In the parlance of the show (and comedians generally), they 'killed.'" Although Olympic record holder Michael Phelps also appeared on the show as host, most critics agreed that he could barely keep his head above water. Matt Roush wrote in the online edition of TV Guide , "For the first five minutes, Saturday Night Live was brilliant on opening night, living up to our wildest expectations. ... From there, the show went downhill fast and stayed there." Mark Perigard wrote in the Boston Herald, "Olympic champion Michael Phelps should stay in the pool. Hell, he should stay underwater. The guy was stiffer than a surfboard." The sketch was posted on numerous Internet sites, but as of this morning (Monday), NBC had surprisingly not demanded that it be removed from any of them.

15/09/2008