Sarah Palin Ratings Soar on Saturday Night Live

Never mind that the once most popular governor in the United States is seeing her approval ratings for the V.P. spot take a tumble, Sarah Palin proved that she still can captivate America by her appearance on SNL. Watch her performance here.

Fourteen million - that is the estimated number of viewers who tuned in to Saturday Night Live to watch Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, last weekend. And according to AP, multiply that number by three to get the total number of people who watched the episode, including those who watched it online or by DVRs. The ratings are SNL's highest in fourteen years, Nielsen Media Research reported. Compared to this time last year, the show is up 76 percent. Palin is first seen, with SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, backstage watching Tina Fey impersonating her, answering questions in a press conference- something the real Palin has never done. Fey's "30 Rock" co-star Alec Baldwin approached the two and mistook Palin for Fey. In front of the governor, he begged Michaels not to allow her Fey to share the stage with Palin. When Michaels finally introduced Palin, an embarrassed Baldwin remarked: " Forgive me. I feel I must say this: You are way hotter in person." To which Palin replied: "Thank you, and I must say, your brother Stephen is my favorite Baldwin brother." Stephen and Palin are both known as born-again Christians. Palin then appears at the press conference, and shared the screen with Fey for a split second as the latter moved off stage. With that, Palin announced: "Now I'm not going to take any of your questions but I do want to take this opportunity to say, 'Live from New York, it's Saturday night!'" The first half-hour of the program drew 17 million viewers. She also later bobbed to a satirical rap performed by Amy Poehler, with Eskimos, a Todd Palin impersonator and a moose. Palin did not perform the rap herself. She said in the program that she felt it would be "cross[ing] the line." Palin later described her experience positively.

"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."