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Do Right And Kill Everything(CNN) -- It took Drake only one try to become one of "Saturday Night Live's" best hosts.
On the January 18 episode, the rapper dusted off his acting skills -- honed on "Degrassi: The Next Generation" -- and seamlessly brought "SNL" back from its hiatus with its newest cast member, Sasheer Zamata.
Zamata was recently hired after the NBC sketch comedy show was criticized for its noticeable lack of African-American women, and made her debut on January 18. Behind the scenes, "SNL" has also added two new African-American women writers, LaKendra Tookes and Leslie Jones.
On Saturday, viewers were trying to figure out how "SNL" would address its highly publicized hire -- would the show again poke fun at itself by making her take on everyone from the first lady to Beyoncé to Oprah in one sketch, as Kerry Washington did when she hosted last fall, or would it slowly introduce her with just one or two scenes?
In the end, "SNL" went with a third option: It used Zamata liberally throughout the show as a supporting player, but her debut was virtually overshadowed by the night's host, Drake.
We weren't the only ones who thought so.
"(G)ive credit to host and musical guest Drake for shifting through characters as if he'd always belonged on the late-night sketch show," the Los Angeles Times said in a review. "Drake showed he had a deft comedic hand on Saturday."
The Huffington Post's Mike Ryan was also pleasantly surprised, saying in a review that Drake reminded him of Bruno Mars from last season: "An energetic host that's been given so-so material that he's able to elevate -- to a point."
And the fact that "SNL" fully integrated Zamata into the episode (versus trying to break her out as a more prominent star) also meant there was more time for Drake, Entertainment Weekly noted, "and Drake was really, really great," particularly in the "Before They Were Stars" sketch.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/20/s...ex.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
