Betty White gets a standing ovation at Emmys, thanks Hollywood for 'putting up with me'

(Image credit: Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

published 18 September 2018

The moment Betty White came onstage during the Emmy Awards Monday night, the audience got up in unison and gave the beloved actress a standing ovation.

"Thank you, I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead," the 96-year-old joked. White is an Emmy winner herself, nominated 24 times during her career, and stuck her hand out so Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin could both give her a kiss. "You think I'm going to miss a chance when I get it?" she asked.

White told the audience she was recently approached by a woman who told her she was "the first lady of television," and at first, she took it as "a big compliment." Then she heard the woman tell her daughter, "'Yeah, she's that old, she was the first one way, way back.'" White took it in stride, and said all those decades ago when she started her career, "little did I dream that I would be here, and it's incredible that I'm still in this business, and you are still putting up with me."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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