'Saturday Night Live' Airs 2010 Betty White Episode
by EG
Betty White had no interest in hosting Saturday Night Live until a social media campaign in 2010 changed her mind. After White's passing over the holiday weeked, SNL paid tribute to her by re-airing the only regualr episode she was ever involved with. Read on for details.
Saturday Night Live is paying tribute to Betty White by re-airing the episode she hosted in 2010.
White, who died overnight Thursday into Friday in her sleep at age 99, just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday, won an Emmy for best guest actress in a comedy series for her work on SNL.
That episode, which first aired May 8, 2010, featured White in sketches including one in which she played the grandmother of a prisoner (Kenan Thompson) who brings her in to scare bullies straight and another in which she played a woman who makes a census taker (Tina Fey) really uncomfortable with her bizarre answers.
That marked White’s first and only time hosting SNL, though she did return for an appearance in the show’s 40th anniversary special in 2015.
According to executive producer Lorne Michaels, he’d asked White to host the show only to be turned down three times. She finally came around following a Facebook campaign that went viral.
Jay-Z was the featured musical guest in the 2010 episode, which aired at 11:30 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC, following a vintage episode of SNL at 10 p.m. ET.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.