Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live aired its twenty-seventh season during the 2001-2002 television season on NBC. The season started on September 29, 2001 and ended on May 18, 2002, 20 episodes were produced. Eighteen days before the season started, the September 11, 2001 attacks took place in New York. The season premiere went on as scheduled, with a special cold open featuring Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City at the time, along with the firefighters and police officers of New York, declaring that despite the terrorist attack, New York City will run as normal and Saturday Night Live will go on as planned. Three weeks into the season the show faced another scare when anthrax was found in the GE Building. The scare caused most of the cast and crew, as well as that week's guest host Drew Barrymore, to evacuate the building. Before the start of the season, Jerry Minor and Chris Parnell were both let go from the show. However, luck was on Parnell's side as he was hired back to the show mid-season in the episode hosted by Jonny Moseley, becoming the second cast member to be hired back to the show after being fired, the first person being Jim Belushi in 1983.

Saturday Night Live aired its twenty-eighth season during the 2002-2003 television season on NBC. Season 28 started on October 5, 2002 and ended on May 17, 2003 having 20 episodes through the season. Before the start of the season, Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer left the show. The latter gave birth to her baby and went on maternity leave, but decided not to return to the show during her leave. Hired to fill their absences were comedian/musician Fred Armisen and TV writer Will Forte, who both joined the show as featured players. This would be the final season for Dean Edwards, Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan. The latter two would make cameo appearances in many episodes of the following season.

Saturday Night Live aired its twenty-ninth season during the 2003–04 television season on NBC. The twenty-ninth season began on October 4, 2003 and ended on May 15, 2004 with 20 episodes in all. Before the start of the season Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan left the show and Dean Edwards was fired. Despite Kattan and Morgan's departure, the two would make guest appearances in several episodes throughout the season. Before the season started, Will Forte, Seth Meyers and Jeff Richards were all promoted to repertory status, while Fred Armisen remained a featured player. The show added two new black cast members: stand-up comedian Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson, a former child star from the Nickelodeon comedy shows All That and Kenan and Kel. With this season, Thompson becomes the first SNL cast member to be born after the show's premiere in 1975 and the first SNL cast member to get his start on children's shows. This season saw the first appearance of Justin Timberlake as an SNL host.

Saturday Night Live had its thirtieth season on the 2004-2005 television season on NBC. The thirtieth season began on October 2, 2004 and ended on May 21, 2005 with 20 episodes in all. Before the start of this season, Jimmy Fallon left the show. In the wake of his departure, Fred Armisen was promoted to repertory status, while Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson remained feature players. New cast members this season include Rob Riggle, an improv comedian and U.S. Marine. This would be Riggle's only season on the show. In addition, SNL writer Jason Sudeikis joined the cast as a featured player for the last three episodes of the season. With Fallon gone, Amy Poehler became Tina Fey's co-anchor on Weekend Update, making Fey and Poehler the first two-woman anchor team. This season was also notable for Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-syncing gaffe during her second performance. This season was also home to many sketches focused on the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, but, unlike the 2000 election, there was little to no media coverage about the sketches.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-first season in the 2005-06 television season on NBC. The season began on October 1, 2005, and ended on May 20, 2006, with 19 episodes in all. The season was cut one episode short due to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. A 30th anniversary special for the show was planned, but the plan was scrapped due to budget cuts. Before the start of the season, featured player Rob Riggle was let go from the show. Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson were both promoted to repertory status while Jason Sudeikis remained a featured player. The show then added three new cast members to the show. They included: Los Angeles-based sketch comedian Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig of The Groundlings. Wiig debuted on the show in November, in the episode hosted by Jason Lee. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone would be a notable force for creating SNL Digital Shorts. One such short was "Lazy Sunday"; after it aired during the Jack Black episode it became an Internet phenomenon. Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph missed a few episodes in this season due to both of them being pregnant and on maternity leave. Fey's place on Weekend Update was briefly taken over by Horatio Sanz until her return in the episode hosted by Catherine Zeta-Jones, making Sanz the first Hispanic Weekend Update anchor. Fey returned to the show before her maternity leave time was up. Maya Rudolph, however, appeared on the first episode of the new season, and then went on maternity leave and returned in February, in the episode hosted by Steve Martin.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-second season during the 2006-2007 television season. This season began on September 30, 2006 and ended on May 19, 2007 with 20 episodes produced. Before the start of the season, the show suffered massive budget cuts. Finesse Mitchell, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz were all fired from the show because of the cuts. This was the second time Parnell had been fired from the show due to budget cuts, the first being after season 26 ended. In addition, Rachel Dratch and Tina Fey left the show on their own terms to begin to work on 30 Rock. Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, and Kristen Wiig were all promoted to repertory status. Due budget cuts from the network, this is the first time since the 23rd season to have no featured players or new members of the repertory cast. After a long slump in quality starting after season 27, episodes hosted by Shia LaBeouf, Dane Cook, Alec Baldwin, Jeremy Piven, Rainn Wilson, and Peyton Manning pulled in big ratings and revived interest in watching the program. With Fey's departure, Saturday Night Live returned to having one male and one female anchor on Weekend Update with the inclusion of Seth Meyers as Amy Poehler's co-anchor. Don Roy King was hired as SNL's newest director.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-third season, during the 2007–2008 television season on NBC. Because of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, there were only 12 episodes produced in this season instead of the usual 20, making this the shortest season in the series run and beating out both the sixth season and the thirteenth season, which had thirteen episodes. This is also the only season in SNL history not to have a new Christmas episode, since the WGA strike spanned from November 2007 to February 2008. No changes to the cast happened over the summer and everyone from last season returned. During the strike, long-time castmember Maya Rudolph left the show, as she had no contract with SNL that year. Casey Wilson, an actress and writer who frequently performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, was hired in January 2008 to fill the void, but due to the strike, did not appear on the show until they returned on February 23, 2008. On November 5, 2007, after the episode hosted by Brian Williams, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. It was announced that SNL would air its next episode on November 10, 2007, live on air, with a future episode to follow, featuring Jonah Hill and musical guest Kid Rock. However, on November 7, 2007, SNL's official website confirmed that those episodes were canceled and reruns would be seen beginning November 10, and would continue during the duration of the strike. The Rock/Winehouse show was canceled, along with the Jonah Hill/Kid Rock episode.

The thirty-fourth season of the variety series Saturday Night Live began airing in 2008 and concluded in 2009 on NBC. This season of Saturday Night Live consisted of 22 episodes, in an attempt to compensate for episodes lost during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. This made it the longest season since the show's second season. The season began on September 13, 2008 on NBC, with Olympic swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps as host and Tina Fey appearing as Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, alongside Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton, and rapper Lil Wayne as the musical guest. The show scored its highest-rated premiere since September 2001 and is the second most-watched SNL ever. The season premiere date of September 13 was earlier than the premiere date for previous seasons, which typically have started during the final weekend of September or in early October. However, a month later, the show drew its highest ratings in over 14 years when the real Sarah Palin appeared. SNL had 17 million viewers during its first half-hour. Before the start of the season the cast remained mostly unchanged except for the addition of Bobby Moynihan. Moynihan came to SNL as a performer with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater; in season 33, Moynihan and Wilson were among the group of Upright Citizens Brigade performers SNL auditioned mid-season while the show was looking for a new cast member to join after the writers' strike in early 2008. Moynihan did not make the cut in his season 33 audition, but instead ended up being invited back for another audition shortly before this season started. Wilson remained a featured player.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-fifth season during the 2009–2010 television season on NBC. This season began on September 26, 2009 and ended on May 15, 2010. A total of 22 episodes were broadcast during the show's eight-month-long season, which included a two-week break in February due to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The season was accompanied by three prime-time episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday and three prime-time SNL clip shows. Prior to the start of the season, many cast changes occurred. Darrell Hammond, the last cast member from the 1990s, left the show after a record 14 seasons in the cast. Featured players Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson were both let go from the show before the start of the season. To fill their absence the show brought in two new featured players, Nasim Pedrad and Jenny Slate. Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan continued as featured players. A notable moment of the season was when an internet campaign was created to get actress Betty White to host an episode of the show. The campaign was started in early 2010 on Facebook and the group was called "Betty White to Host SNL!" The campaign was successful, and White became the oldest person ever to host the show. For White's episode, Lorne Michaels brought back former cast members Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon. The episode garnered its highest ratings in over a year. with a rating of 5.8 in the 18–49 rating, demographic and with 12.1 million viewers overall.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-sixth season during the 2010–2011 television season on NBC. This season began on September 25, 2010 with former cast member Amy Poehler serving as host and Katy Perry as the musical guest, and ended on May 21, 2011 with Justin Timberlake serving as host and Lady Gaga as musical guest. Prior to the start of the season, many cast changes occurred. Will Forte, who had been with the show since 2002, announced on August 26, 2010 that he would be leaving the show. Featured player Jenny Slate was let go from the show after only one season. Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan were promoted to repertory status, becoming the first featured players to be promoted since 2006. The show hired four new cast members: Chicago improvisers Vanessa Bayer and Paul Brittain from ImprovOlympic; stand-up comic/impressionist Jay Pharoah; and comedic actor Taran Killam of The Groundlings, who, like Jeff Richards was a former cast member on SNL's rival sketch show, MADtv. This season also debuted a new animated feature voiced by former SNL cast members, called "Greetings from American America", created by former SNL head writer Fred Wolf.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-seventh season during the 2011–2012 television season on NBC. The season officially began on September 24, 2011 with host Alec Baldwin, who returned to host for a record sixteenth time and with musical guest Radiohead and ended on May 19, 2012 with host and musical guest Mick Jagger. The season began with minimal changes to the cast, as everyone from the prior year returned. The only major change that occurred was Nasim Pedrad being upgraded from being a featured player to repertory status. Kate McKinnon joined the cast midseason, as a featured player for the last 5 episodes of the season, making her debut on April 7, 2012. McKinnon's addition was announced March 28, 2012. McKinnon is SNL's first openly gay cast member hired since Terry Sweeney in 1985, and the show's first openly gay female cast member. This would be the final season for seven-year vets Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig, both cast members since 2005. As well, Abby Elliott, who had been a cast member since 2008, would be let go from the show after four seasons. Second year featured player Paul Brittain also exited abruptly halfway through the season, making his final appearance on January 14, 2012.

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-eighth season during the 2012–2013 television season on NBC. The season officially began on September 15, 2012, with host Seth MacFarlane and musical guest Frank Ocean. The season came to a close on May 18, 2013 with host Ben Affleck and musical guest Kanye West. Prior to the start of the season, many cast changes occurred. Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig, both cast members since 2005, decided not to return following the end of the previous season. As well, prior to the start of the season, Abby Elliott, who had been a cast member since 2008, was let go after four seasons on the show. Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah were upgraded to repertory status. To fill the void, the show hired three new cast members: Chicago improvisers Aidy Bryant, Tim Robinson, and Cecily Strong as the replacements. According to the official press release, "Bryant trained at the iO Chicago, Annoyance Theatre and she was also part of the ensemble that performed on the Second City E.T.C Stage. Robinson also trained at the The Second City, he performed on their Mainstage and was also part of their National Touring Company. Like Robinson, Strong has also performed as part of the National Touring Company and trained at the iO Theater".

Saturday Night Live premiered its thirty-ninth season during the 2013–14 television season on NBC. The season officially began on September 28, 2013, with host Tina Fey and musical guest Arcade Fire, and concluded on May 17, 2014, with host Andy Samberg and musical guest St. Vincent.

Saturday Night Live premiered its fortieth season during the 2014–15 television season on NBC. The season premiered on September 27, 2014, with host Chris Pratt and musical guest Ariana Grande, and former cast member Darrell Hammond as the show's new announcer, replacing Don Pardo, who had died in August. The premiere included an interstitial photograph of Pardo. Pardo had been the announcer for SNL since it premiered in 1975, with the exception of season seven and season 21, episode 14, where Hammond took his place. This season also saw the death of former cast member Jan Hooks, who died from cancer two weeks into the season.