| Season Number: | 33 |
| Bgcolour: |
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| Image Alt: | The title card for the thirty-third season of Saturday Night Live. |
| Num Episodes: | 12 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Prev Season: | season 32 |
| Next Season: | season 34 |
| Episode List: | List of Saturday Night Live episodes |
The thirty-third season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 29, 2007, and May 17, 2008. Due to 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 (1980–1981) season and the thirteenth (1987–1988) season, which had thirteen episodes each and were also cut short due to WGA strikes. 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.
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 (with host Dwayne Johnson and musical guest Amy Winehouse), live on air, with a future episode to follow, featuring Jonah Hill and musical guest Kid Rock.[1] However, on November 7, 2007, SNLs 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.[2]
During the strike on November 17, 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 cast member Amy Poehler) in New York City. Every cast member except for Maya Rudolph (who had at that point left the cast) appeared, with former cast members Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch and musician Norah Jones making cameo appearances.[3]
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 longtime former SNL cast member Tina Fey with musical guest Carrie Underwood.[4]
To make up for lost time and wages, four episodes were produced back-to-back between February 23 and March 15. The "four in a row" marathon had not been done since season one in 1976.[5]
No changes to the cast happened over the summer and everyone from last season returned. Prior to the start of the season, Maya Rudolph, who had been on the show for nine seasons since 2000, announced she would be leaving the cast.[6] However, she changed her mind ahead of the season premiere and remained on the show.[7] When the show shut down in November due to the strike, Rudolph did not renew her contact.[8]
Casey Wilson, a comedian and writer who frequently performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, was hired in January 2008 to fill the void left by Rudolph.[9] [10] However, because of the strike, Wilson did not appear on SNL until the show returned on February 23, 2008.[11]
Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.
| Airdate | Host | Musical Guest | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 10, 2007 | Dwayne Johnson | Amy Winehouse | Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hosted a season 34 episode in March 2009, with musical guest Ray LaMontagne. Winehouse never appeared as a musical guest prior to her death in 2011. |
| November 17, 2007 | Jonah Hill | Kid Rock | Jonah Hill ended up hosting in March 2008, with musical guest Mariah Carey (originally, it was Janet Jackson, but she cancelled due to the flu). Kid Rock has yet to return to the show as musical guest (the last time he appeared was on the season 25 finale hosted by Jackie Chan). |
| December 1, 2007 | Ben Affleck | Not announced | Ben Affleck ended up hosting for the fourth time on the November 1, 2008 broadcast with musical guest David Cook. |
| December 8, 2007 | Edie Falco | Not announced | Cancelled due to writer's strike. |
| December 15, 2007 | Tom Hanks | Not announced | Tom Hanks would have hosted a Christmas episode of SNL to coincide with the premiere of the movie Charlie Wilson's War. |
| January 12, 2008 | Alec Baldwin | The Killers & Lou Reed | Alec Baldwin hosted a season 34 episode in February 2009, with musical guest Jonas Brothers. In addition, Brandon Flowers has said in an interview that The Killers and Lou Reed were going to appear on the show and perform "Tranquilize" but the show was canceled due to the strike. This fact has not been confirmed by NBC. The Killers, without Reed, appeared on October4, 2008. |
| January 19, 2008 | Dakota Fanning | Ghostland Observatory | Cancelled due to writer's strike. |