Sarah Palin Ups SNL To Best Ratings in 14 Years.

Guru’s Update on the exploding Viral Views: NBC’s own capture of the view count of Palin’s opening monologue is tracking some 580,000+ views to date. By the time Monday hits, it’ll be well into seven figures. Or more. Palin’s “Moose Rap” runs more than 300,000. Many of them from my daughter’s dorm at Berkeley.

There’s no telling if the real Sarah Palin’s appearance on the late night legend “SNL” will improve the McCain/Palin ticket’s odds in 15 days. But it sure gave Saturday Night Live a big bump (kudos to the uber-pregnant Amy Poehler) in the ratings. The Moose Rap will now enter the show’s long history of watercooler classics.

View Amy & the Eskimos here: The Moose Rap

This would be the highest-rated “SNL” since March 12, 1994, when Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan — skating with the late, great, ever-graceful Chris Farley –was the host and Aretha Franklin the musical guest. “SNL” would also be the third-highest-rated show of all last week, including primetime, following only ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” (12.0/18) and CBS’ “CSI” (11.2/17). So does that mean 82-year old Cloris Leachman beat out the beehived babe?

The show opened with a conversation between the real Palin chatting with executive producer Lorne Michaels while Tina Fey portrayed Palin in front of the studio audience. Among other things, Palin tried to get Michaels to agree to let her play Fey on “30 Rock,” on which Michaels is an executive producer. But Michaels declined, saying that nobody watches “30 Rock.” She was then introduced to Alec Baldwin, another “30 Rock” star who after lambasting her politics, then tells the Governor: “You’re hotter in person.”

Also on the show was host Josh Brolin, star of the new Oliver Stone movie “W”, and actor Mark Wahlberg, cracking jokes about his hip “Entourage” credentials.

Saturday’s show was up 161% compared with the average last October (4.1/10). It’s also up 47% compared with the Oct. 4 “SNL” that averaged a 7.3/18. The real SP averaged a 10.7 rating/24 share in the 56 metered markets, according to preliminary estimates released Sunday by Nielsen Media Research.

Thanks to always in-the-know THR’s Political Theater Blog.

Guru’s Note:  Not surprisingly, the media (’liberal + regular liberal’) is going wild with SP’s appearance on SNL.  Commentator Pat Kitano has a good piece on his blog, which also links to the buzzy Election 2008 twitter site.

This Year’s Hottest Halloween Costume: Joe The Plumber

It’s a classic ‘Wag the Tail phenomenon. Joe the Plumber, the Toledo, Ohio plumber who asked Barack Obama a question, already has nearly 1550 fans on his Facebook page.

Adding to Joe Wurzelbacher’s iconic status, many plan to copy his Plumber-Chic look for Halloween, possibly beating out Sarah Palin for most popular costume. So avoid the run on gray T’s and Mach 3’s. Rush to your local Home Depot asap.

Guru’s Note: Here’s the entire context of the exchange, courtesy of MSNBC.