Mofo Politics | Hoping Obama Fails

Lorne Michaels talks Sarah Palin, SNL

Posted October 21st, 2008 under Headlines Tags: lorne michaels, palin, snl, tina fey

EW:

How incredibly fortunate was it that the election’s breakout star also happens to look exactly like Tina?

LORNE MICHAELS: There was all that, and it’s the first election with a star in a long time. The great part about the Palin thing was — and I’ve said it all too often — was that the audience cast Tina. You’d read or people would come up to you and say, what a gift. You want to point out that Tina’s no longer in the cast, that she has her own show. But I think if we had used Kristin [Wiig], who I think would’ve done a brilliant Sarah Palin, the audience would’ve been disappointed. No question about it. And Tina’s fantastic.

What do you think Palin gained from her appearance?

I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she’s powerful. Her politics aren’t my politics. But you can see that she’s a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she’s had a huge impact. People connect to her.

She’s a ratings magnet, too — do you think she can land a development deal if this VP thing doesn’t work out?

She could pretty much do better than development. I think she could have her own show, yeah.

Why was her impending appearance kept so under wraps?

From the experience on the first show of last season. Hillary’s people had called to book the first show. This was in ’07. We said okay, because they called first. Then she bailed. Obama had called just after, and I had to say, no, they called first. Everybody wanted to release it, and I said, no, too many things can happen in a campaign. Then Obama was set for the first show this past season, and it got leaked by the campaign to People.com, and we said, really? Because we don’t do that. Then the hurricane happened, and we looked foolish. There were a lot of press calls, and it didn’t happen. From that moment on I said I’m not doing anything until they’re in the building.

Watch Sarah Palin on SNL HERE.