Martha F***ing Stewart does not do dishes, and the Olsen twins make really lousy manual laborers. So says this skit from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, where the cast parodied the CBS hit Undercover Boss with a less-likely-to-succeed show dubbed Undercover Celebrity Boss. Among the discoveries: Sir Richard Branson can’t really go incognito. Not with that ego. Or that hair. (Kudos, Bill Hader, for an impersonation well done.) Once SNL pokes fun at you, you’re part of the conversation, so CBS and its product-placement-heavy show must be thrilled. And the big ratings just keep coming. Sunday’s episode, where the CEO of White Castle made a mess of the square-burger chain’s assembly line, drew 15.1 million viewers and beat even the heavily promoted Jerry Seinfeld-produced Marriage Ref on NBC. Critics have called Undercover Boss emotionally manipulative, though viewers can’t seem to get enough. Next up: behind the scenes at Louisville’s historic racetrack Churchill Downs, where the CEO getting his hands dirty should really be something to see.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley