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Saturday Night Live season 33
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Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-third season, during the 2007-2008 television season on NBC. No new cast members were added to the show at the beginning of the season, and the entire cast from the thirty second season returned for Season 33. The 33rd season started on September 29, 2007 with LeBron James as host and Kanye West as musical guest, and ended on May 17, 2008 with Steve Carell as host and Usher as musical guest.
On November 5, 2007, after the Brian Williams/Feist episode, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. It was announced that SNL would air its next episode on November 10, 2007 (with host The Rock and musical guest Amy Winehouse), 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 (though Jonah Hill would get a second opportunity, when he hosted the March 15th episode, with musical guest Mariah Carey).
During the strike on November 18, 2007, the cast of the show, along with host Michael Cera and musical guest Yo La Tengo performed an "episode" of the show entitled Saturday Night Live - On Strike! at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (co-founded by current cast member Amy Poehler) in New York City. Every cast member except for Maya Rudolph appeared, with former cast members Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch and musician Norah Jones making cameo appearances. [1].
On February 12, 2008, the strike was announced to be officially over with a 92.5% vote. Production continued on February 18, 2008 for the February 23, 2008 episode, hosted by former SNL castmember Tina Fey with musical guest Carrie Underwood.
During the strike, long-time castmember Maya Rudolph left the show, as she had no contract with SNL that year. Casey Wilson, one of many improv comedians from The Upright Citizen Brigade, was hired in January to fill the void, but due to the strike, did not appear (not even in the stage performances at the UCB Theater) until the Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood episode in February.
Because of the 2007-2008 WGA strike, there are 12 episodes this season instead of the usual 20 (with 4 consecutive episodes made between February 23 and March 15), making this the shortest season in the series run and beating out both the sixth (1980-1981) season and the thirteenth (1987-1988) season (both of which were cut short due to strikes from the Writers' Guild), which had thirteen episodes.
Cast
Repertory players
Featured Players
Listings
Regular Airings
- September 29, 2007: LeBron James/Kanye West (33.1, live)
- October 6, 2007: Seth Rogen/Spoon (33.2, live)
- October 13, 2007: Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (33.3, live)
- October 20, 2007: LeBron James/Kanye West (33.1, repeat)
- October 27, 2007: Seth Rogen/Spoon (33.2, repeat)
- November 3, 2007: Brian Williams/Feist (33.4, live)
- November 10, 2007: Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (33.3, repeat)
- November 17, 2007: Brian Williams/Feist (33.4, repeat)
- November 24, 2007: SNL Family Thanksgiving Leftovers (new special)
- December 1, 2007: Alec Baldwin/Christina Aguilera (32.5, repeat)
- December 8, 2007: Jack Black/Neil Young (31.9, repeat)
- December 15, 2007: Justin Timberlake (32.9, repeat)
- December 22, 2007: Steve Martin/James Taylor (17.9, repeat)
- December 29, 2007: John C. Reilly/My Chemical Romance (32.3, repeat)
- January 5, 2008: Peyton Manning/Carrie Underwood (32.16, repeat)
- January 12, 2008: Jake Gyllenhaal/The Shins (32.10, repeat)
- January 19, 2008: The Best of Tracy Morgan (special, repeat)
- January 26, 2008: Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (33.3, repeat)
- February 2, 2008: Tom Brady/Beck (30.17, repeat)
- February 9, 2008: Brian Williams/Feist (33.4, repeat)
- February 16, 2008: LeBron James/Kanye West (33.1, repeat)
- February 23, 2008: Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (33.5, live)
- March 1, 2008: Ellen Page/Wilco (33.6, live)
- March 8, 2008: Amy Adams/Vampire Weekend (33.7, live)
- March 15, 2008: Jonah Hill/Mariah Carey (33.8, live)
- March 22, 2008: Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (33.5, repeat)
- March 29, 2008: Ellen Page/Wilco (33.6, repeat)
- April 5, 2008: Christopher Walken/Panic at the Disco (33.9, live)
- April 12, 2008: Ashton Kutcher/Gnarls Barkley (33.10, live)
- April 19, 2008: Amy Adams/Vampire Weekend (33.7, repeat)
- April 26, 2008: Christopher Walken/Panic At The Disco (33.9, repeat)
- May 3, 2008: Jonah Hill/Mariah Carey (33.8, repeat)
- May 10, 2008: Shia LaBeouf/My Morning Jacket (33.11, live)
- May 17, 2008: Steve Carell/Usher (33.12, live)
- May 24, 2008: Ashton Kutcher/Gnarls Barkley (33.10, repeat)
- May 31, 2008: Shia LaBeouf/My Morning Jacket (33.11, repeat)
- June 7, 2008: LeBron James/Kanye West (33.1, repeat)
- June 14, 2008: Steve Carell/Usher (33.12, repeat)
- June 21, 2008: Tina Fey//Carrie Underwood (33.5, repeat)
- June 28, 2008: George Carlin/Billy Preston/Janis Ian (1.1, repeat) [originally, the episode hosted by Ellen Page with musical guest Wilco was supposed to rerun, but was replaced with this episode due to George Carlin's death]
- July 5, 2008: Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (33.3, repeat)
- July 12, 2008: Jonah Hill/Mariah Carey (33.8, repeat)
- July 19, 2008: Christopher Walken/Panic! At the Disco (33.9, repeat)
- July 26, 2008: Rainn Wilson/Arcade Fire (32.14, repeat)
- August 2, 2008: Seth Rogen/Spoon (33.2, repeat)
- August 9, 2008: Preempted due to the Summer Olympics
- August 16, 2008: Preempted due to the Summer Olympics
- August 23, 2008: Preempted due to the Summer Olympics
- August 30, 2008: Brian Williams/Feist (33.4, repeat)
- September 6, 2008: Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (33.5, repeat)
Prime-time Airings
- December 8, 2007: 9:30 The Best of Will Ferrell
- December 13, 2007: 9:30 SNL Christmas
- December 15, 2007: 8:00 SNL Christmas
- December 15, 2007: 9:30 The Best of Chris Farley
- December 22, 2007: 8:00 The Best of 2006/2007
- December 22, 2007: 9:30 SNL Goes Commercial ('aka' Best of Commercial Parodies)
- April 22, 2008: 8:30 The Best of Chris Farley
- June 15, 2008: 9:00 The Best of Mike Myers (updated version)
Episodes
Episode
Number |
Date |
Host(s) |
Musical Guest(s) |
Remarks |
| 625 (33.1) |
September 29, 2007 |
LeBron James |
Kanye West |
- In the live east-coast version, the opening credits were not announced until Seth Meyers' name appeared on-screen because Don Pardo's microphone was not turned on, but was revoiced after the show for the west-coast airing.
- Kanye West performs singles "Stronger" and "Good Life" in his first performance. In his second performance he performed "Champion" and "Everything I Am", during which he messed up a line and then freestyled about it.
- The NBC rerun of this episode contains a dress rehearsal version of the "Lyle Kane Show" sketch and an extended version of the Great Moments in Guidance Counseling sketch where Kenan Thompson plays a guidance counselor who tells Kanye West (who appears as himself) to drop out of college after a year and get rich writing songs about it.
|
| 626 (33.2) |
October 6, 2007 |
Seth Rogen |
Spoon |
- Chevy Chase makes his first appearance on Saturday Night Live in 6 years, with the original Update set re-created for him. His last appearance was 6 years prior to the day during the Weekend Update of the Seann William Scott/Sum 41 episode when he revived his old recurring character, The Landshark.
- A Rob Smigel cartoon was announced during the credits, though no cartoon was shown. In NBC reruns, the announcement is cut.
|
| 627 (33.3) |
October 13, 2007 |
Jon Bon Jovi |
Foo Fighters |
- Bon Jovi makes a special musical performance during Jon Bon Jovi's monologue and the credits, while Foo Fighters only made one musical performance, yet Foo Fighters were still the official musical guests.
- Jack Nicholson was in attendance; he introduced Bon Jovi's end of show performance.
|
| 628 (33.4) |
November 3, 2007 |
Brian Williams |
Feist |
- Barack Obama made a special cameo during the cold opening. Obama also started show by uttering the famous words, "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"
- Former cast member Horatio Sanz returned to play Democratic hopeful Bill Richardson in the cold opening and another sketch.
- Bono, Al Roker, and Matt Lauer appear in the SNL Digital short "The Brian Williams Diaries". Host Brian Williams was taping an interview with Bono for NBC during the week and asked him appear in the short.
- In addition to hosting, Brian Williams fulfilled his Nightly News duties and moderated the Democratic debate on Tuesday.
- Maya Rudolph's final episode as a cast member. It was not intended to be, and nobody knew she had departed until the show returned live in February 2008.
- An announcement was made for the November 10th episode hosted by The Rock with musical guest Amy Winehouse, but the episode itself was canceled when news hit the day after this episode aired that the Writers Guild of America was going on strike.
|
| Writers Guild of America Strike |
| 629 (33.5) |
February 23, 2008 |
Tina Fey |
Carrie Underwood |
- Fey is the third female cast member to return to SNL as a host (with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the first and Molly Shannon as the second), the second one female SNL castmember (next to Molly Shannon) who used to work under Lorne Michaels, and the first female castmember who used to work as a Weekend Update anchor.
- With this episode, Carrie Underwood is now the first American Idol winner to be a musical guest on SNL more than once (Underwood was the musical guest for last season's episode hosted by Peyton Manning).
- Casey Wilson's first episode as a cast member.
- Maya Rudolph did not make an appearance in this episode, and her name was left out of the opening credits. She does not have a contract with SNL this year and her long-time partner, director Paul Thomas Anderson, was nominated for an Oscar the following evening (Anderson lost to the Coen Brothers). [2]
- Steve Martin made a cameo appearance during the opening monologue.
- Governor Mike Huckabee made a cameo as himself during "Weekend Update".
- Announcer Don Pardo made a rare on-screen appearance during the goodnights in celebration of his 90th birthday, which was celebrated the previous day.
- This is the first of four consecutive live episodes produced after the end of the writer's strike.
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| 630 (33.6) |
March 1, 2008 |
Ellen Page |
Wilco |
- The real Hillary Clinton appeared in the cold opening right after Amy Poehler impersonated her. She is the second Presidential candidate to say "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night" after Barack Obama.
|
| 631 (33.7) |
March 8, 2008 |
Amy Adams |
Vampire Weekend |
- Due to the daylight saving changecitation needed, the show started to glitch after 12:30 during the East Coast airings.
- Amy Adams and Kristin Wiig performed "What Is This Feeling?" from the musical Wicked in the opening monologue.
|
| 632 (33.8) |
March 15, 2008 |
Jonah Hill |
Mariah Carey |
- Jonah Hill was originally supposed to host SNL on November 17, 2007 with musical guest Kid Rock, but the episode was canceled (along with the planned episode after the Brian Williams/Feist show hosted by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with musical guest Amy Winehouse) due to the writers' strike.
- Janet Jackson was originally confirmed on air to be musical guest in the previous episode, but due to the flu, she declined on the Tuesday of the performance.[3] Mariah Carey was confirmed right after Janet Jackson dropped out.
- Long-time SNL writer and scribe of the current political sketches Jim Downey portrayed Andy Samberg's father, Ben Samberg in the SNL Digital Short.
- T-Pain guested on Carey's second song.
|
| 633 (33.9) |
April 5, 2008 |
Christopher Walken |
Panic at the Disco |
- This marks the first episode hosted by Christopher Walken that doesn't include his recurring character, The Continental, or his song-and-dance monologue.
- Connecticut Senator and former 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate Christopher Dodd made a guest appearance during the SNL Digital Short segment.
- Tina Fey appeared in the Annuale sketch.
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| 634 (33.10) |
April 12, 2008 |
Ashton Kutcher |
Gnarls Barkley |
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| 635 (33.11) |
May 10, 2008 |
Shia LaBeouf |
My Morning Jacket |
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| 636 (33.12) |
May 17, 2008 |
Steve Carell |
Usher |
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