Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday

Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday
Genre Comedy
Satire
News Parody
Created by Lorne Michaels[1]
Written by Seth Meyers (head writer)[1]
Directed by Don Roy King[1]
Presented by Seth Meyers
Amy Poehler
Starring Fred Armisen
Vanessa Bayer (season 3)
Aidy Bryant (season 3)
Abby Elliott (season 2)
Will Forte (season 1–2)
Bill Hader
Darrell Hammond (season 1–2)
Taran Killam (season 3)
Kate McKinnon (season 3)
Bobby Moynihan
Nasim Pedrad (season 2–)
Jay Pharoah (season 3)
Tim Robinson(season 3)
Andy Samberg(season 1–2)
Cecily Strong(season 3)
Jason Sudeikis
Kenan Thompson
Kristen Wiig (season 1–2)
Casey Wilson (season 1)
Narrated by Don Pardo
Theme music composer Jeff Richmond
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 8
Production
Executive producer(s) Lorne Michaels[1]
Producer(s) Steve Higgins
Marci Klein
Ken Aymong (supervising)[1]
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network NBC
Original release October 9, 2008 (2008-10-09) – present
Chronology
Related shows 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.

Darrell Hammond made guest appearances in the first three episodes, despite no longer being an SNL cast member. Former cast member Amy Poehler also returned as a special guest to co-anchor the first two episodes of the season. Although six were announced, the spring 2010 episodes were scrapped.

Fall 2012

NBC announced 2 SNL specials to be broadcast on 8pm Thursday beginning September 20, 2012. This time around, the show was listed as SNL Primetime Election Special in some TV listings, but the actual on-air program retained its original title.

Episodes

Season 1: 2008

Episode Number Date Special guests Summary
1 October 9, 2008 Bill Murray
Chris Parnell
  • Cold opening sketch features Darrell Hammond as Sen. John McCain and Fred Armisen as Sen. Barack Obama in the middle of the 2nd Presidential Debate.
  • Chris Parnell guest appears to reprise his Tom Brokaw impression and moderated the debate. Bill Murray also appears as townsperson "William Murray" asking a question.
2 October 16, 2008 Chris Parnell
  • Cold opening sketch focuses the 3rd Presidential debate between McCain and Obama. Chris Parnell guest appears as Bob Schieffer and moderated the debate.
  • A new segment named "We Liked It" debuts during Weekend Update.
3 October 23, 2008 Will Ferrell
Tina Fey

Season 2: 2009

Despite Lorne Michaels saying that 3 episodes would be airing in Fall 2009, then another 3 in early 2010, and 3 in Spring 2010,[3] there were only 3 Weekend Update Thursday installments that all occurred in Fall 2009.

Episode Number Date Special guests Summary
1 September 17, 2009 Amy Poehler,
Darrell Hammond
2 September 24, 2009 Amy Poehler,
Megan Fox,
Darrell Hammond
3 October 1, 2009 Darrell Hammond,
Maya Rudolph

Season 3: 2012

Episode Number Date Special guests Summary
1 September 20, 2012[4] *There were no special guests. *This is the first episode since 2009 and also the first without Darrell Hammond.
2 September 27, 2012[4] There were no special guests Jason Sudeikis does not appear in this episode.

Nielsen ratings

# Air Date 18-49 Viewers
(in millions)
Season One
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]
Season Two
4 September 17, 2009 2.0 5.7
5 September 24, 2009 1.8/5 4.66
6 October 1, 2009 1.8/5 5.08
Season Three
7 September 20, 2012 1.6/5 5.15
8 September 27, 2012 1.5/6 4.67

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 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
  2. ↑ "'Heroes' Back in a Big Way This Fall". 2008-05-23. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  3. ↑ "Tom Shales on Season Debut of 'Saturday Night Live's' 'Weekend Update Thursday'". The Washington Post. September 18, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Hollywood Reporter - SNL Weekend Update Thursday returning in September 2012.
  5. 1 2 "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.
  6. 1 2 "NBC Primetime Results For The Week Of October 13–19" (Press release). NBC Universal Media Village. 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  7. 1 2 "NBC Primetime Results For The Week Of 20–26" (Press release). NBC Universal Media Village. 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2009-02-25.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, January 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.