as a love interest for Fey's character, Liz Lemon. It was also announced by NBC that Hamm would star in a three-episode arc; he made his debut in this episode, made his second appearance in "St. Valentine's Day", and made his final guest spot in the show's third-season episode "The Bubble". Hamm later appeared in the season four episodes "Anna Howard Shaw Day" and "Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land" and the season five episode "Live Show." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fey said when the writing staff is developing a script, "We'll have an actor in mind and we'll keep referring to them. Like for this we said, 'Then Hamm comes in, blah blah blah.'" She believed that there was no possibility of getting Hamm, though "we were lucky with the timing because Mad Men was on hiatus and he was hosting SNL. So I called over there and asked them [whispering], 'Hey, is that guy funny? Tell me the truth.' And they were like, 'Yes, he's really funny.' By Saturday I knew they were right." This episode was actress Salma Hayek's third appearance on 30 Rock. She first appeared in the episode "Señor Macho Solo" as a nurse for Jack Donaghy's mother and love interest for Jack. Hayek's second appearance came in "Flu Shot". Critical reception According to the Nielsen ratings system, "Generalissimo" was watched by 6.4 million households, the same as the previous week's episode "Retreat to Move Forward", in its original American broadcast. It earned a 3.1 rating/7 share in the 18–49 demographic. This means that it was seen by 3.1% of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 7% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. The episode was the eleventh highest-rated show on the NBC network that week. Todd Holland, director of this episode, received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing For a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. This episode was submitted for consideration on the behalf of Alec Baldwin for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the same awards show. Bob Sassone of TV Squad admitted in his review that after seeing the promos for "Generalissimo" audibly groaned, and believed the story about a fictitious soap character resembling Baldwin's Jack would not work. He wrote that all of the "over-the-top surreal subplots" featured in the season would make this episode "the worst