Country of origin United States Original network NBC | No. of episodes 22 | |
Original release September 24, 2011 (2011-09-24) – May 19, 2012 (2012-05-19) | ||
The thirty-seventh season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 24, 2011, and May 19, 2012.
Contents
Cast
The season began with minimal changes to the cast, as everyone from the prior year returned. The only major change that occurred was Nasim Pedrad being upgraded from being a featured player to repertory status.
Kate McKinnon (previously a cast member on The Big Gay Sketch Show) joined the cast mid-season, as a featured player for the last five episodes of the season, making her debut on April 7, 2012. McKinnon's addition was announced March 28, 2012. McKinnon is SNL's first openly-gay cast member hired since Terry Sweeney in 1985, and the show's first openly gay female cast member (Danitra Vance from the 1985–86 season was SNL's first lesbian cast member but Vance's sexuality was not public knowledge until her death in 1994).
This would be the final season for Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg, both cast members since 2005. As well, Abby Elliott, who had been a cast member since 2008, would be let go from the show after four seasons. Second year featured player Paul Brittain also exited abruptly halfway through the season, making his final appearance on January 14, 2012.
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
This season saw several new writers. CollegeHumor writer Sarah Schneider was added to the writing staff, after serving as a guest writer for the last five episodes of season 36. Also added were Chris Kelly, who previously wrote for Funny or Die and The Onion News Network; Zach Kanin, who worked on the Harvard Lampoon; and Peter Schultz, a performer from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.
The season saw the deaths of three former SNL writers. Nelson Lyon died at the age of 73 due to liver cancer; Lyon wrote for the show during its seventh season. Mark O'Donnell, who also wrote during the show's seventh season, died of a heart attack at the age of 58 outside his apartment in New York. Most notably, Tom Davis died after a three-year battle with throat and neck cancer; Davis was one of the original SNL writers and appeared in multiple sketches over the years.