TVSquad

• SNL will run live 30-minute Thursday election specials in primetime starting October 9 and running until the election. The specials will feature Weekend Update but may also have sketches. There will also be a primetime "Presidential Bash" episode the night before the election.
• Michaels mentioned that Jimmy Fallon will air his show online for "five or six months" before it airs in Conan O'Brien's old timeslot, in order to give it a headstart in finding its creative legs. "We learned with Conan how brutal it was to find a show when it was on the air," he said.

A few days ago I wrote about Rachel Sklar's Saturday Night Live piece in The Village Voice. Being that she had full access to the cast members as well as to executive producer Lorne Michaels, she gathered plenty of information, much of it not included in her Village Voice article.

So, rather than tossing it in the trash, Sklar took those remnants and posted them at The Huffington Post, where she is editor as well as contributor. There's some pretty good stuff here. For example, Michaels says 40 to 50 sketches are read and written during the normal show week, with only 10 to 15 of those making it to air on Saturday night. Also of interest is that cast member Jason Sudeikis' uncle is George Wendt, the happy-go-lucky alcoholic Norm from Cheers.

As Sklar says, a lot of this information is for the committed comedy wonk. So, if you aren't into the behind-the-scenes stuff this may not be for you. However, if you want to know about the "Really Important Things That SNL Staff, Cast & Writers Should Know" bulletin board, click here.

There has been plenty of press lately on the "new era", slimmed down, Tiny Fey-less Saturday Night Live. Some promising, others pretty dismal. On the somewhat positive (yet neutral) side we have Rachel Sklar's piece on SNL in a recent The Village Voice.

Rachel was pretty much given full access to rehearsals, two full shows, cast members, and Lorne Michaels himself for the piece. And, from what she sees, this cast is much different from ones that had previously graced the stage at Studio 8H. Gone are the days of booze, drugs and over-sized egos. In its place is a troupe of more responsible performers who want to sit back and catch up with each other rather than face-off on how much better they are. It's actually harder to do that these days because, as Sklar points out, everyone is being given more face time due to the loss of actors such as Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz.

Everyone - including us - reported that one of the many changes happening at Saturday Night Live this fall would be Tina Fey and Amy Poehler being replaced on Weekend Update (Fey because of her role on 30 Rock, Poehler because Lorne Michaels wanted a change). But now comes word - from Poehler herself - that she is still going to be an anchor on Weekend Update. It's just that she's going to be paired with a new partner.

The more interesting thing is that she tells TV Guide's Michael Ausiello (scroll down) that she doesn't know who she will be partnered with yet. It was reported last week that the new WU anchor would be Jason Sudeikis. Hmmm...

Related:

With the recent departures of Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch from Saturday Night Live, and the announcement of (wink, wink) budget cuts by executive producer Lorne Michaels, one begins to ponder what SNL will look like once the bloodletting is complete. So, my dear TV Squad fans, I pose a question to you: if you were in Mr. Michaels' seat who would stay and who would go?