The appearance on “Saturday Night Live” by the Republican vice presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, pushed that three-decade-old late-night show to its best overnight ratings in more than 14 years. It's hard to make predictions on how many viewers watched Saturday's "SNL" based on overnight ratings but a rough estimate would put it around 14 million viewers who watched the show.

Sarah Palin made the appearance along with her impersonator comedian Tina Fey performing a sketch of a news conference and a "Weekend Update" scene with Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler.

According to early statistics, Palin's appearance on "SNL" appears to have attracted the attention of far more homes than the TV appearance of Democratic candidate Sen. Joe Biden, who was the guest of NBC's "Tonight Show" on Thursday and that of her own presidential running mate, Sen. John McCain, who guested on Dave Letterman's CBS late-night show, also on Thursday all together.

Palin's on-camera time totaled maybe six minutes, but still she had a great time: "I would do that again in a heartbeat," she said. "It was the most welcoming and friendly environment that you could imagine. Everyone was so nice, and you know, you have to have a sense of humor through all of this. You have to have some levity through this. Otherwise, it would really, I think, grind on you and wear you out."

There is a risk, however, that the jokes will backfire. To some extent, they already did by the time of the debate. We’ll find out whether this is true or not on November 4.