Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday
Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday | |
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Genre | Comedy Satire News Parody |
Created by | Lorne Michaels[1] |
Written by | Seth Meyers (head writer)[1] |
Directed by | Don Roy King[1] |
Starring | Fred Armisen Abby Elliott (season 2) Will Forte Bill Hader Darrell Hammond Seth Meyers Bobby Moynihan Nasim Pedrad (season 2) Amy Poehler Andy Samberg Jenny Slate (season 2) Jason Sudeikis Kenan Thompson Kristen Wiig Casey Wilson (season 1) |
Narrated by | Don PardoSeason 1 |
Theme music composer | Jeff Richmond |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 9 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Lorne Michaels[1] |
Producers | Steve Higgins Marci Klein Ken Aymong (supervising)[1] |
Production locations | GE Building, New York City, New York, USA |
Running time | 30 minutes (with commercials) |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | October 9, 2008 – present |
Related | |
Spin-off of Saturday Night Live |
Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday is an American limited-run series broadcast on NBC. It is a political satire news show spin-off from Saturday Night Live, featuring that show's "Weekend Update" segment. It initially ran for three 30-minute episodes in October 2008, during the lead-up to the 2008 United States presidential election.
2008 presidential run
It premiered on Thursday, October 9, 2008, at 9:30 p.m. ET, after The Office. The remaining episodes aired in the same timeslot on October 16 and 23.[2]
The format consists of a topical cold open sketch similar to most episodes of SNL, followed by an extended Weekend Update for the remaining time. The series is essentially a continuation of the short-form "primetime extra" specials which have aired intermittently since the 2000-2001 season, when NBC needed to fill time following "supersized" 40-minute episodes of Friends.
Several former Saturday Night Live alumni returned to this show: Will Ferrell reprised his role as President George W. Bush, while Tina Fey appeared as Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, in a continuation of her much-publicized appearances on the regular show. During the first show, Bill Murray appeared as himself, one of the undecided voters at the second presidential debate sketch. Chris Parnell appeared in the first two episodes as the moderators of the debates, Tom Brokaw and Bob Schieffer.
Fall 2009 return
Although originally intended to be a limited run series, NBC announced on May 4, 2009 that they ordered six new episodes of the show, thus, as it turned out, being the only show NBC introduced at the beginning of the 2008-2009 fall season to survive into a second term.[citation needed]
NBC has announced that the new episodes will premiere on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 8:00PM ET [3] and that Amy Poehler will guest-star as co-anchor for the first two episodes.[1]
Episodes
Season 1: 2008
Episode Number | Date | Special guests | Summary |
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1 | October 9, 2008 | Bill Murray Chris Parnell |
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2 | October 16, 2008 | Chris Parnell |
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3 | October 23, 2008 | Will Ferrell Tina Fey |
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Season 2: 2009/2010
Lorne Michaels said that 3 episodes would be airing in Fall 2009, then another 3 in early 2010, and another 3 in Spring 2010. [4]
Episode Number | Date | Special guests | Summary |
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1 | September 17, 2009 | Amy Poehler |
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2 | September 24, 2009 | Amy Poehler, Megan Fox |
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3 | October 1, 2009 |
Nielsen ratings
# | Air Date | 18-49 | Viewers (in millions) |
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1 | October 9, 2008 | 5.1/12[5] | 10.9[5] |
2 | October 16, 2008 | 4.2/10[6] | 8.8[6] |
3 | October 23, 2008 | 4.0/9[7] | 8.8[7] |
References
- ^ a b c d e f Emmy Nominee Amy Poehler to Guest-star in First Two Episodes of NBC'S New 'Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday' on September 17 and 24 a July 30, 2009 press release from the NBC Universal website
- ^ "'Heroes' Back in a Big Way This Fall". 2008-05-23. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
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(help) - ^ Matt Mitovich (25 June 2009). "NBC ANNOUNCES FALL SERIES PREMIERE DATES". TV Guide Online. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b "SNL Weekend Update Thursday, The Office and Sunday Night Football Pace NBC's Week Of October 6–12" (Press release). NBC Universal Media Village. 2008-10-14. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
- ^ a b "NBC Primetime Results For The Week Of October 13–19" (Press release). NBC Universal Media Village. 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
- ^ a b "NBC Primetime Results For The Week Of 20–26" (Press release). NBC Universal Media Village. 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2009-02-25.