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

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

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, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.