How cool is this? (Answer: Very.) Fan and critic pressure, for once, has carried the day: NBC has announced that, due to popular demand, Betty White WILL host
Saturday Night Live...
She's scheduled to appear May 8. Based on her performances on Boston Legal, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and her Snickers Super Bowl ad, Betty White, 88, won't have any problem keeping up. Hell, with her decades of live TV experience, she's liable to run rings around her young costars.
But for her Saturday Night Live appearance, executive producer Lorne Michaels is hedging his bets, and upping his ante, by also making it a reunion of former SNL female players. Tine Fey has agreed to come aboard for the occasion, as have Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, and Fey's one-time 30 Rock costar, Rachel Dratch.
At age 88, Betty White is the most mature performer ever to host the show - though, in the past, Bob & Ray hosted one great episode, and Milton Berle hosted a terrible one.
Congratulations to everyone who lobbied hard for White to get her late-night SNL shot. That includes you, Diane -- and, thus, it includes TVWW.
So what's next, folks? A Deadwood reunion movie?