Seventeen million people tuned in to see Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoof Tina Fey's spoofing her on Saturday Night Live.  The much-anticipated appearance by the woman from the state where you can see Russia comes on the heels of a very popular series of skits that was birthed by Fey's uncanny resemblance to Palin.  There was the appearance with Hillary Clinton and the interview with Katie Couric, both played by Amy Poehler.  It was a pretty successful campaign for SNL on all accounts.

As 30 Rock, created by and starring Fey, inches closer and closer to its season 3 premiere on October 30, it hopes to ride the wave of popularity brought by Palin and Fey.  Fey winning an Emmy also didn't hurt its chances, and now everyone, including Fey, hopes everything turns out well.

"I hope this ends up helping 30 Rock,” says Fey.  "I would like the audience to go up just enough so that people don't have to refer to it as 'the ratings-challenged 30 Rock' anymore."  Fey, of course, was referring to the less-than-stellar ratings of 30 Rock at an average of 6 million viewers each week.

"The SNL stuff has certainly changed things for me.  A lot more people seem to know who I am,” she adds.

On the premiere episode of 30 Rock called “Do-Over,” an adoption agency evaluator comes to 30 Rock to evaluate whether Liz would make a good mommy.  Playing the adoption agent is Megan Mullally, best known for playing the perpetually soused socialite Karen Walker on Will and Grace.

Moreover, Fey maintained that the resemblance of Mullaly's hairstyle to Palin's was absolutely not intentional.  “It's funny: Megan chose a very Sarah Palin hairstyle for her character.  It may look purposeful now, but it's not.  The episode was shot before any of that."


-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Associated Press
(Image Courtesy of NBC)