| Season Number: | 35 |
| Bgcolour: |
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| Image Alt: | The title card for the thirty-fifth season of Saturday Night Live. |
| Num Episodes: | 22 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Prev Season: | season 34 |
| Next Season: | season 36 |
| Episode List: | List of Saturday Night Live episodes |
The thirty-fifth season of Saturday Night Live (also branded SNL 35), an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 26, 2009, and May 15, 2010.
A total of 22 episodes were broadcast during the show's eight-month-long season, which included a two-week break in February due to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The season was accompanied by three prime-time episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday and three prime-time SNL clip shows.
This season introduced a new opening montage, which was shot using the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon EOS 7D digital SLR cameras. Typical elements are recorded at thirty frames per second (fps), with slow-motion sequences shot at sixty fps, both in full 1080p high definition.[1]
A notable moment of the season was when an internet campaign was created to get actress Betty White to host an episode of the show. The campaign was started in early 2010 on Facebook and the group was called "Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!" The campaign was successful, and White became the oldest person ever to host the show. For White's episode, Lorne Michaels brought back former cast members Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon. The episode garnered the show's highest ratings in over a year. with a rating of 5.8 in the 18–49 rating, demographic and with 12.1 million viewers overall.[2]
Prior to the start of the season, Darrell Hammond, who was the last cast member from the 1990s, left the show. At the time, Hammond became the longest-running cast member with a total of 14 seasons, though he would later be surpassed by Kenan Thompson in 2017. Following Hammond's departure, featured players Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson were both let go from the show after the finale of the previous season. Wilson had been on the show for two seasons, while Watkins had been on for only one.[3] To account for the absences of Watkins and Wilson, the show brought in two new female featured players as replacements, comedian and writer Nasim Pedrad of The Groundlings and stand-up comic Jenny Slate.[4] Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan remained as featured players.
This would be the final season for longtime cast member Will Forte, who had been on the show for 8 seasons since 2002.[5] This would also be the only season for Slate, who was let go at the end of the season.[6]
Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Second City theater performer Mike O'Brien joins the writing staff.[7] He would join the cast for the show's thirty-ninth season.
Additionally, starting with this season, writers Colin Jost (who has been writing for the show since 2005), Emily Spivey (who had been writing for the show since 2001), and John Mulaney (who was hired at the start of the previous season in 2008), were named as this season's writing supervisors, replacing Paula Pell (who took a brief leave of absence).[8]
Starting with the Tina-Fey hosted episode, Pell (who had been a writer on the show since 1995, and was gone for most of the season) returns to the writing staff. This episode would also be the last for longtime writer Spivey, as she left the show following this episode, after nine years as a writer.[9]
Also, starting with the following Ryan Phillipe-hosted episode, Bryan Tucker (a writer for the show since 2005) is named as the new co-writer supervisor, alongside Jost and Mulaney.[10]
Season 35 would also prove to be the final season for fellow longtime writer/Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone (who had been a writer since 2005), as he left the show after five years.[11] He would make contributions to select Lonely Island sketches.
This was also the final season for another longtime writer, John Lutz (who had been with writing staff since 2004), as he left the show after 6½ years.[12]
See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.
See main article: Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday. The second season of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, a limited-run series based on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" sketch, aired in conjunction with this season. The show is hosted by Seth Meyers, Updates current host, and former Update co-host Amy Poehler. Like the sketch, the show is a parody of local news broadcasts and satirizes contemporary news stories and figures. As of June 2010, three episodes have aired. An additional three episodes were scheduled to air in spring 2010, but were scrapped.[13]
| Episode number | Original airdate | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 | September 17, 2009 |
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| Episode 2 | September 24, 2009 |
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| Episode 3 | October 1, 2009 |
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The first SNL film since 2000's The Ladies Man, MacGruber was released on May 21, 2010. The film, starring SNL cast members Will Forte and Kristen Wiig and former cast member Maya Rudolph, is based on the "MacGruber" sketches from the show. It received mixed reviews from critics and, in spite of a wide initial release, was a box office bomb. After a two-week opening commitment during which it was shown in 2,546 theaters, it was dropped from all but 177 theaters starting in its third week.[14]