Saturday Night Live began its thirty-second season on September 30, 2006 with Dane Cook as host and The Killers as the musical guests. The last episode was on May 19, 2007, hosted by actor Zach Braff with musical guest Maroon 5.
Before the start of the season, the show suffered "massive budget cuts" at NBC. Lorne Michaels said that cutting staff was chosen over reducing from 20 the number of original episodes produced.[3] As a result, longtime cast members Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz, who had both been on the show for eight seasons since 1998, were fired from the show, along with Finesse Mitchell, who had been a cast member for three seasons since [[Season 29|2003\\.[4] This was the second time Parnell had been fired from the show due to budget cuts, the first being after the 2000–01 season ended. In addition, longtime cast members [[Rachel Dratch\\ (who had been on the show for seven seasons since 1999) and Tina Fey (who had been a staff writer since 1997, and a cast member for six seasons since 2000) left the show on their own terms, as both were to begin work on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. Dratch would end up being replaced on 30 Rock by actress Jane Krakowski.[5]
With Fey's departure, Seth Meyers (a head writer and cast member since 2001) became Amy Poehler's co-anchor on Weekend Update.
All four featured players from the previous season (Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig) were all promoted to Repertory Status, and no new cast members were hired. As such, it was the first season since Season 23 to have no featured cast members. This was the smallest cast in recent memory, with only 11 people.
Longtime director Beth McCarthy-Miller (who had previously been the director since 1995) also did not return; she was replaced by director Don Roy King.
The opening montage is changed. The bars are still in, but the New York footage is changed. A new logo was introduced this season. It is based on the logo seen during Dick Ebersol's tenure as showrunner between 1981 and 1985, but with a modern typeface. It says, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE", and the cast fonts are changed. The cast names zoom away after Don Pardo announces their names.
Interestingly, around this time, Seth's cast contract was up, but once again auditioned for Weekend Update after Tina had left; and being head writer at the time, his manager said to him that if he didn't get Update, they would've had a contract for him, where he would remain at the show as solely head writer, and never appear on camera again. But Meyers refused the contract until they decided on an Update host, and would've left the show had he not gotten Update.[1]
Cast[]
Repertory Players[]
Episodes[]
Opening montage[]
S32
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| Preceded by: Season 31 |
Season 32 (2006— 2007) |
Followed by: Season 33 |
| Seasons | |
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