Last night's Saturday Night Live opened with a sketch spoofing Fox News, its coverage of the election — and, of course, Glenn Beck. (more...)

In its 34th season last year, SNL went mainstream — super mainstream. Thanks to Tina Fey's uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin — a Vice-Presidential candidate who revealed herself to be a headline machine in one of the most riveting election seasons in U.S. history — SNL hit its stride with viral video after viral video, which skyrocketed it out of the realm of late-night ratings and onto daytime computer screens across the nation (and newscasts, and 24-hour cable shows, and The View, etc. etc. etc.) Finally figuring out how to make videos embeddable and loosening the next-day pickup sphincter helped, too. At long last, the choruses of "SNL sucks! I never watch it!" were quelled.

Fast forward a year. Tonight SNL premieres its 35th season (well, if you don't count the last two Thursdays). Times are tougher than ever for network television — Tivo is king, appointment television is scarcer than ever, Jay Leno has brought comedy to 10 pm. Okay, maybe not that last thing. The point is, SNL is premiering tonight in a non-election year — and expectations are high. How can it possibly meet them?

Two words: Megan Fox. (more...)