Live from New York – it’s Thursday night!

Starting this Thursday, “Saturday Night Live” will be taking on primetime for the next three weeks as half-hour episodes of “SNL Thursday Night Live” run until the presidential election, in addition to regularly scheduled “SNL” episodes.

The show will feature an opening political sketch and the “Weekend Update” segment. So does that mean more Tina Fey? [pictured at right]

Seth Meyers, the show’s head writer and “Weekend Update” anchor, told Access Hollywood that the “30 Rock” star will probably come back to play vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin once again.

“If Sarah Palin does something to get in the news, which she’s been very consistent on doing so far, I think we’ll see Tina as well,” Seth told Access’ Mariah Menounos.

And, he said, Sarah Palin herself may make a much-rumored appearance to make fun of Fey.

“I can confirm that the door is open if she would like to come and make an appearance,” he said.

And he confirmed that the VP candidate was a fan of Fey’s impression – at least the first time she did it.

“We heard from Sarah Palin’s people that she really liked the first time that Tina played her,” he said. “We haven’t heard from her since then.”

With “SNL” successfully bringing back Fey for a number of skits, ratings have soared – and Meyers says he thanks the candidates.

“They have been kind in providing comedic fodder for us,” he said. “It’s been really fun. The best thing for us is everybody’s paying attention, 70 million people watched the vice-presidential debate last week so we can make jokes about every part of it and people got it.”

— Access Hollywood

Gwen Ifill

From Meet the Press

SNL

The latest entry from SNL

Live from NY... It's Saturday Night!

ABOUT THIS SKIT

Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" star now running in a high-profile Senate race in Minnesota, helped craft the opening sketch mocking John McCain that is slated to kick off the NBC comedy show tonight, according to two well-placed sources inside the network.

Franken, who hasn't been a staff writer on the show for 13 years, "phoned in" a spoof of McCain recording campaign ads in an edit booth, said an NBC source. Seth Meyers, the show's current head writer, wrote it, but the sketch was hatched by Franken, a longtime liberal satirist and comedian.

— From The Huffington Post

Live!

Hurricane Ike cancels appearance

From Reuters:

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has canceled plans to appear on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live after his campaign decided this weekend was not a time for humor in light of the expected devastation from Hurricane Ike.

— Story