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.
Release Date
Sep 13, 2008
Episodes
22 episodes
CAST
Kenan Thompson
Self - Various Characters
Bobby Moynihan
Self - Various Characters
Kristen Wiig
Self - Various Characters
Seth Meyers
Self - Various Characters
EPISODES
1
Michael Phelps/Lil Wayne
Sep 13, 2008
2
James Franco/Kings of Leon
Sep 20, 2008
3
Anna Faris/Duffy
Sep 27, 2008
4
Anne Hathaway/The Killers
Oct 4, 2008
5
Josh Brolin/Adele
Oct 18, 2008
6
Jon Hamm/Coldplay
Oct 25, 2008
7
Ben Affleck/David Cook
Nov 1, 2008
8
Paul Rudd/Beyonce
Nov 15, 2008
9
Tim McGraw/Ludacris/T-Pain
Nov 22, 2008
10
John Malkovich/T.I.
Dec 6, 2008
11
Hugh Laurie/Kanye West
Dec 13, 2008
12
Neil Patrick Harris/Taylor Swift
Jan 10, 2009
13
Rosario Dawson/Fleet Foxes
Jan 17, 2009
14
Steve Martin/Jason Mraz
Jan 31, 2009
15
Bradley Cooper/TV on the Radio
Feb 7, 2009
16
Alec Baldwin/Jonas Brothers
Feb 14, 2009
17
Dwayne Johnson/Ray LaMontagne
Mar 7, 2009
18
Tracy Morgan/Kelly Clarkson
Mar 14, 2009
19
Seth Rogen/Phoenix
Apr 4, 2009
20
Zac Efron/Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Apr 11, 2009
21
Justin Timberlake/Ciara
May 9, 2009
22
Will Ferrell/Green Day
May 16, 2009
Details
Language
English
Country
Production
Network
Metadata
TMDB ID
59621