| Season Number: | 34 |
| Bgcolour: |
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| Image Alt: | The title card for the thirty-fourth season of Saturday Night Live. |
| Num Episodes: | 22 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Prev Season: | season 33 |
| Next Season: | season 35 |
| Episode List: | List of Saturday Night Live episodes |
The thirty-fourth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 13, 2008, and May 16, 2009.
This season is notable for its take on the 2008 presidential election, which saw the show's ratings rapidly increase and multiple award wins.
See main article: Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin. SNLs coverage of the 2008 presidential election caused ratings to increase rapidly. The season premiere opened with Tina Fey playing Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin (alongside a pregnant Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton) in a "non-partisan message on sexism".[1] The phrase "I can see Russia from my house!" was coined by SNL producer Mike Shoemaker during this sketch.[2]
The show won a Peabody Award for its political satire in 2009.[3] Tina Fey won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Sarah Palin. The show also won a Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy/Variety Talk Series.[4] [5]
Before the start of the season, the cast remained mostly unchanged, except for the addition of Upright Citizens Brigade Theater performer Bobby Moynihan.[6] [7]
Midway through the season, longtime cast member Amy Poehler went on maternity leave after giving birth to her son hours before the October 25, 2008 episode, hosted by Jon Hamm.[8] Shortly after Poehler went on maternity leave, the show added two new female cast members to fill the void. Abby Elliott (daughter of former SNL cast member Chris Elliott) and Michaela Watkins, a performer with The Groundlings, joined the show as featured players on November 15, 2008.[9] Poehler, who had been on the show for eight seasons since 2001, returned on December 6, 2008 in the John Malkovich hosted episode and made her final appearance as a cast member the following week on the Hugh Laurie hosted episode on December 13, 2008.[10] [11] She announced that it would be her final show at the end of Weekend Update, leaving Seth Meyers to anchor Weekend Update solo. With this announcement, Poehler became the longest serving female cast member at the time, as she surpassed Molly Shannon and Rachel Dratch's record after staying for eight seasons. Poehler's record would be surpassed eleven years later by Kate McKinnon, who joined the show near the end of season 37, and stayed on for eleven seasons.
This season would also be the last for longtime cast member Darrell Hammond, the last remaining cast member from the 1990s, who had been on the show for fourteen seasons.[12] He was the longest-running cast member until Kenan Thompson surpassed him in 2017. Hammond would eventually return to SNL, making multiple cameo appearances in sketches, until he succeeded longtime announcer Don Pardo in 2014, after Pardo died a month before the start of season 40.[13] Following Hammond's departure, featured players Watkins and Casey Wilson were both let go after the season's finale.[14]
Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.