Blog : TV Worth Watching

Diane Holloway, and Millions of Others, Get Their Wish: Betty White Will Host "SNL"

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?

3 Comments

Sean Dougherty said:

Broderick Crawford also hosted once. It's a fair prediction that Ms. White will be the last dramatic radio actress ever to appear on the program.

Comment posted on March 11, 2010 1:27 PM

Jim said:

I think Betty White would be great in a Deadwood reunion movie, too.

Comment posted on March 11, 2010 5:01 PM

Tom Lum said:

A Deadwood movie would be too good to be true. I am anxious to see Justified on FX, Timothy Olyphant plays a great "can snap at any moment" character.

Comment posted on March 12, 2010 2:50 PM

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Behind David in the picture is the first TV owned by his father, Virgil Bianculli, a 1946 Raytheon. (The TV, not his father. His father was a 1923 Italian.)

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air, occasional substitute host for that show's Terry Gross, and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His most recent book is 2009's Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,' and he's at work on another.

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