Betty White muscled “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend to its biggest ratings in more than 18 months, according to early ratings.
Appearing in nearly every skit and never blinking at some of the bawdy material the show’s young writers threw at her, White drew the biggest “SNL” audience since November 2008 — when Tina Fey appeared as Sarah Palin with GOP nominee Sen. John McCain days before the presidential election.
Fans of White, 88, mounted a Facebook campaign last winter to convince “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels that she should get a chance to host the comedy show.
Final figures will not be released until tomorrow at the earliest but the editors of the authoritative rating Web site Tvbythenumbers.com estimated the size of the audience at 12.5 million people. The average “SNL” episode draws about 9 million viewers.