That’s unusual. Tweets from dress rehearsal, fine — but a script leak? Gavin’s item excerpted a big chunk of text, which was almost identical to that which ended up being filmed*** — and thus, pretty much gave away the joke, and the lion’s share of the punchlines. Later, when the sketch didn’t run, Gavin tweeted “Source tells me: ‘They are really upset over at NBC about that script leak.‘”

So: were they upset enough to pull the sketch? Or did it get weeded out in the normal order of things? That question mark in the headline above is genuine — we don’t know. An NBC PR for SNL declined to comment to Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer on the subject. But an SNL-insider dismissed my speculation, saying that there had been no buzz about that sketch, or any controversy: “Bronx Beat and Debbie Downer would have made it ahead of that — I think they wanted as much Betty as they could get, and that just didn’t have it.”

(That flies in the face of my rationale for having it — to give Betty White a break! — but rarely have I seen an SNL host who looked less like she needed one.)

Gavin noted on Twitter that he thought the bomber-sketch would have made a more effective cold open than Lawrence Welk; I will admit that that was my initial impression as well. But then I realized I was applying the standard of a normal show, and this was an extraordinary show — one in which the host and the returning guest stars trumped pretty much everything else. “Think about that as your cold open vs. all of those great women sharing “Live From New York” with Betty White,” said my source. “Completely changes the show.”

Well yes, it sure does. Does that mean NBC and SNL brass weren’t upset over the leak? Of course not. And who knows, that may have factored into the eleventh-hour decision of what stays and what goes come 11:30 p.m. But for this show, on this night, the funny — and the Betty — probably won out. So, our ruling is: No, the SNL Times Square Bomber sketch was not cut because of the Politico leak. But that doesn’t mean NBC PR wants to talk about it.

At least they didn’t leak the muffin sketch. That might have been too hot even for Politico. And moist. Video below.

***Attention, Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters: That’s *almost* identical — you might want to fix the text you pulled that just happens to be identical to Gavin’s but not quite on par with the sketch itself…and in that vein, you might want to credit and link to Gavin, too. Oh and you might also want to actually watch SNL – then you’d know the sketch didn’t actually air “last evening,” or any evening. Just sayin’.

Actually, that wasn’t Sn00ki, née Nicole Polizzi — that was Bobby Moynihan, reprising his impression of her on SNL’s “Weekend Update” tonight, talking about the demand for her in malls and clubs across the country and wondering if she and hottie anchor Seth Meyers were gonna “smoosh.” (BTW Sn00ki will be working the red carpet for MTV at the Grammys tomorrow night. Nice going, girlfriend!). Life is good for Snooks – as she said earlier via Twitter, “2nd season with this dysfunctional guido family? This can get filthy, creepy and scary.” Which, if you’ve read any of Mediaite’s coverage of Jersey Shore, equals awesome. Video below.

Related:
MTV’s Jersey Shore: The Worst Best Show Of All Time [Mediaite]

p.s. Who makes a better stand-in for Robert Pattinson, Andy Samberg or Bill Hader? Trick question, there’s only one Robert Pattinson.

The sketch was loaded with send-ups — Greta Van Susteren by Kristen Wiig, Shep Smith by Bill Hader, Brit Hume by Will Forte, Karl Rove by Bobby Moynihan and Juan Williams by Kenan Thompson — and took aim at assertsions that the election was a referendum on Obama. (Hume: “He had ten months – ten months! – in office, and he could not find time to fix the greatest economic collapse in modern times, or win one of the two wars that he inherited.” Rove: “Let’s not forget that it was under HIS watch that we lost the King of Pop.”) Oh yes, the Fox “panel” also featured Fred Armisen as lone Dem Joe Trippi (the joke being that Trippi was an overlooked, ignored afterthought).

The highlight of the sketch, though, was Jason Sudeikis as Glenn Beck who declared Tuesday’s election “the return of Freedom,” got choked up, and took to the chalkboard to rearrange the letters in Greta’s name. (“A Great” for “A great, great nation” — the joke being that Glenn Beck can’t spell.)

Great, zingy sketch — but my only quibble here is with the glaringly off-note of Shep Smith. Played by the usually spot-on Hader, this version of Shep is inaccurate in that it portrays him as pushing a nakedly partisan agenda, which Smith is well-known precisely for not doing. All told, though, that’s balanced out by Juan Williams’ mustache and Glenn Beck’s hat. Watch below:

Of course I like this sketch spoofing Fox News’ election coverage — it agrees with me. Nice Juan Williams from Kenan Thompson (mustache!), great Greta Van Susteren from Kristen Wiig, funny Karl Rove from Bobby Moynihan, and a shout-out to Joe Trippi, even if it’s clear that the SNL makeup people had no clue what he looked like. Best line in the whole thing: “Let’s not forget that it was under HIS watch that we lost the King of Pop.” A nit: Bill Hader as Shep Smith was way too smugly partisan, with shades of Keith Morrison. But on the flip side, I think Jason Sudeikis may need to get an Emmy for his impression of Glenn Beck. Outstanding.

RELATED: Taylor Swift on SNL: Twilight, Glenn Beck, and No Kanye.

That’s why here at Mediaite, we bring you all the videos from last night’s show and let you decide for yourselves. Drew Barrymore was the host, Regina Spektor was the musical guest, and Obama was once again the target, this time for his lucky, lucky win of the Nobel Peace Prize. Per Fred Armisen as BHO:

“This prize bestowed by the Nobel committee in Norway is given annually to individuals who have made significant contributions to world peace. Jimmy Carter won it for decades of trying to find solutions to international conflicts, Al Gore won it for his years of education [the] U.S. about climate change, and us? Well, I won it for not being George Bush.”

SNL then expanded on the theme with a joke that, as RedEye’s Andy Levy pointed out, had already made the rounds on Twitter:

“The funny thing is it’s the first Powerball ticket I’ve ever bought. I was driving Sasha and Malia home from school and we stopped at a 7/11 for sodas. We all chose two numbers and there you have it: $70 million.”

Good times. Vids below:

Obama/Powerball cold open:

Drew Barrymore Monologue:

>>>NEXT: Larry King, Celebrity Ghost Stories, University of Westfield Online

Cold Open: Quaddafi at the U.N.
Flight Attendants: Megan Fox and Kristen Wiig
Commercial Parody: Bladdivan
Digital Short: Megan Fox & Will Forte
Russian Brides – Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Megan Fox

>>>NEXT: “Burning Up The Bedsheets” With Megan Fox, Jean K. Jean, and Judy Grimes

She also teased the appearance on tonight’s episode of SNL Weekend Update Thursday (best name ever!), appearing in a funny little soap opera send-up to commemorate the ending of Guiding Light, coming on set with a gun to challenge Amy Poehler for the Update chair (scandal!). It was a small bit but she did well, which bodes well for Saturday night (although oddly the audience seemed taken aback by her presence and only started applauding when Amy exclaimed “Megan Fox!”). See stills from the appearance below; always great to see Darrell Hammond back on set and in the mix. Lorne Michaels would be silly to get rid of him, he’s always going to be useful. But then again, that’s never stopped Lorne Michaels before.

We’ll have that video for you when it’s online, but in the meantime here she is in a series of NBC promos for Saturday’s premiere, with Andy Samberg — who, lest we not forget, she has said she’d enjoy being sandwiched with, along with Jonah Hill. I’m sure they’d both hate that.

p.s. Don’t believe me that Megan Fox SNL Promos are news? Check out Google, which returns 302,000 results for “Saturday Night Live Megan Fox Promo.” Really.

SNL Promos with Megan Fox and Andy Samberg:


Stills from Megan Fox’s cameo on SNL Weekend Update Thursday:

Update: Video here.