As expected, the former writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey, did make a guest appearance as Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, on the show’s season premiere, hosted by Olympian Michael Phelps. That wasn’t the actual surprise, as talk of the impersonation was all over the papers, due to the striking resemblance of the two. The unexpected thing was bringing Fey as Palin next to Amy Poehler’s Hillary Clinton.

The “nonpartisan message” featured the two most powerful women of America, one of them getting closer and closer to the White House, and not the one everyone thought it could, but on the contrary. By the end of the sketch, Clinton had already broken a piece of furniture while grinding her teeth in a crooked smile while Palin seemed completely unaware.

Their presence hardly made up for the canceled appearance of the actual Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, as most of the show, including Michael Phelps’ monologue was to have been built around Obama and would have included an additional cameo by action star Chuck Norris.

The both of them, however, were unable to come, due to the outburst of Hurricane Ike, as Obama’s representatives declared on Friday Night: "In light of the unfolding crisis in Texas, Senator Obama has decided it is no longer appropriate to appear on 'Saturday Night Live' tomorrow evening."

This caused a lot of last-minute change in the program and some say that this year’s SNL season premiere was, yet again, not like in the good old days, especially with this being an election year with a lot of politic sketches just waiting around the corner to be brought to life. However, Saturday’s telecast, averaged a 7.4 household rating/18 share in 55 markets metered by Nielsen (Houston and New Orleans were excluded due to Hurricane Ike.)

And last, but not least, the show made some memorable lines like Palin’s "And I can see Russia from my house," and speaking of global warming:"I believe it's just God hugging us closer," and also, Hillary’s hilarious finale...

Update: CBS News reported that the real Sarah Palin has a good laugh watching SNL. Palin’s spokeswoman, Tracey Schmitt, said that the Republican vice-presidential nominee watched the show along with the press corps in the back of the plane, while traveling from Reno to Denver.

“She thought it was quite funny, particularly because she once dressed up as Tina Fey for Halloween,” Schmitt said.