• Amy Poehler appears as a special guest to co-anchor Update alongside Seth Meyers. Darrell Hammond appears as former president Jimmy Carter.

• Amy Poehler returns as a special guest to co-anchor Update alongside Seth Meyers. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Darrell Hammond appears as Bill Clinton and Megan Fox parodies the finale of the soap opera Guiding Light. Newly-hired Saturday Night Live featured player Nasim Pedrad appears for the first time in the cold open as Kathy Griffin.

• Darrell Hammond appears as Dennis Franz and Maya Rudolph appears as Oprah Winfrey. This is the first Weekend Update Thursday episode not to feature a cold open.

• Holiday-themed sketches from past episodes are aired, including Adam Sandler's "The Hanukkah Song", Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's "Dick In A Box" Digital Short, Delicious Dish and many more. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin make guest appearances. Kristen Wiig hosts as her character Gilly.

• Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis host the show as Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink, their recurring ESPN Classic sports announcer characters. Sketches featuring appearances by professional athletes including: Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Charles Barkley and others are shown.

• ^[14]

(35.1)

• U2 performed "Breathe", "Moment of Surrender" and "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)"
• This episode is newly-hired cast member Jenny Slate's first appearance on SNL, and Nasim Pedrad's first full episode.
• A new opening sequence which mentions SNL's 35 years on-air debuts with this episode.
• During the "Biker Chick Chat" sketch, Jenny Slate accidentally says, "You stood up for yourself, and I fuckin' love you for that!" Most of the sketch before and after consisted of everyone saying "Friggin'," "frickin'" or "freakin'". Slate quickly holds her breath after realizing her mistake. On the October 24, 2009 rerun of this episode, a dress rehearsal version of the sketch aired instead of the live show version.

(35.2)

• Lady Gaga performed "Paparazzi" and a medley of songs including "Bad Romance", "LoveGame" and "Poker Face".
• A new format for the introduction of the musical guest and host debuts in this episode.
• Elijah Wood appeared in the SNL Digital Short.
• Scarlett Johansson (Reynolds' wife) appeared in the "Porcelain Fountains" ad portraying the same Lexi character that she played during her past two hosting appearances.
• Lady Gaga and Madonna appeared in Deep House Dish. Lady Gaga also appeared in another sketch after her second performance.
• Darrell Hammond appears as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during Weekend Update.

(35.3)

• Regina Spektor performed "Eet" and "The Calculation"
• With this episode, Drew Barrymore has hosted more than any other woman in SNL history, passing Candice Bergen.
• Justin Long (Barrymore's ex-boyfriend) appeared as Matthew McConaughey in a sketch called "Celebrity Ghost Stories". He summarized the plot of McConaughey's movie, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

(35.4)

• Shakira performed "She Wolf" and "Did It Again"
• Dwayne Johnson made a cameo reprising his role as "The Rock" Obama in the cold opening.
• This is the first episode in SNL history where a sole advertiser (Anheiser-Busch's Bud Light Golden Wheat) buys all national ad time. During this ad time, outtakes from dress rehearsal from the 1990s and 2000s are shown.^[15]
• James Franco appeared as himself in the sketch "What Up with That?". He had no lines.
• This is the first episode of the season not to feature an SNL Digital Short.

(35.5)

• Taylor Swift performed "You Belong with Me" and "Untouchable"
• Amy Poehler returned to do another "Really?! with Seth and Amy" during Weekend Update. Poehler also introduced Swift's second performance.
• At 19 years old, Taylor Swift is now the second youngest host and musical guest to appear on SNL (after Britney Spears, who was 18 when she first hosted and performed).

(35.6)

• Black Eyed Peas appeared in the Today Show sketch. They also performed "I Gotta Feeling", "Meet Me Halfway" and "Boom Boom Pow". The last song closed out the show and was plaved over the goodnights.
• Darrell Hammond cameoed as Lou Dobbs on Weekend Update.

(35.7)

• Dave Matthews Band performed "You and Me" and "Shake Me Like a Monkey".
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt's opening monologue is a song and dance tribute to Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" number in Singin' in the Rain
• Dave Matthews cameoed as Ozzy Osbourne in "The Mellow Show" while Bill Hader portrayed Matthews.
• Al Gore cameoed in the "What Up with That?" sketch and on Weekend Update as a promotion for NBC "Green Week" and his new book.
• Mindy Kaling cameoed in "What Up with That?" as the 2nd guest. She had no lines.

(35.8)

• Rihanna performed "Russian Roulette" and "Hard" and appeared in the SNL Digital Short.
• Young Jeezy performed with Rihanna for her second song.
• On this episode's installment of Weekend Update, Abby Elliott appeared as actress-singer Brittany Murphy, following a report about Murphy's alleged firing from a recent film. Elliott portrayed Murphy as not entirely in touch with reality, believing she was SNL's host that evening, and planning to retaliate against the film's director by booing the film at the theater. Murphy died unexpectedly two weeks later on December 20. NBC removed the clip from Hulu without comment.
• The January 23, 2010 rerun of this episode removes the Weekend Update segment with Abby Elliott as Brittany Murphy, and has a dress rehearsal version of the final sketch, "The Potato Chip Thief."

(35.9)

• Bon Jovi performed "Superman Tonight" and "When We Were Beautiful".
• This episode was dedicated to Heino Ripp, SNL's technical director from 1975 to 1983.
• This is the second episode of the season not to feature an SNL Digital Short.

(35.10)

• Muse performed "Uprising" and "Starlight"
• Mike Tyson and Jack McBrayer appeared during "What Up With That?", although McBrayer had no lines.

(35.11)

• The start of the broadcast was delayed 35 minutes due to the Cowboys-Eagles NFC Wild Card game running long. The original airing did not start on time on the East and Central time zones.
• Alicia Keys performed "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart" and "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down" and appeared in the SNL Digital Short.
• The "Barkley's Bank" sketch was cut off prematurely due to time.
• Charles Barkley is now the first basketball player to host SNL more than once (as Barkley first hosted in September 1993).

(35.12)

• The Ting Tings performed "That's Not My Name" and "Shut Up and Let Me Go".
• Darrell Hammond cameoed as Jay Leno in the cold open.
• James Cameron cameoed as himself in the SNL Digital Short.
• With this episode, Sigourney Weaver surpasses Madeline Kahn's record for longest gap between hosting appearances (Kahn's gap was 18 years; Weaver's gap is 24 years, as she first hosted in 1986).

(35.13)

• Michael Bublé performed "Haven't Met You Yet" and "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and appeared in the "Hamm and Bublé" sketch.
• Sharon Jones sang with Michael Bublé for his second song.

(35.14)

• Them Crooked Vultures performed "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and "New Fang".
• This is the third episode of the season not to feature an SNL Digital Short, although the "An Even-Tempered Apology from White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel" sketch was pretaped.
• Dave Grohl appeared in a sketch after Them Crooked Vultures' second performance.
• Jason Sudeikis can be heard saying "so fucking funny" as the goodnights begin. His reaction is also visible.^[16]
• A fake commercial called "Tooter" as a parody of Twitter was cut from the live show but is available online on NBC's website [15].

(35.15)

• Jennifer Lopez performed "Pieces" and "Starting Over".
• During the "Flags of the World" SNL Digital Short, a "We Love Betty White" flag is shown, making reference to the fan led effort to get 88-year-old White to host the show for the first time.
• Also during "Flags of the World" SNL Digital Short, the "I like to hit people with my car" fake subtitle from the "Hollywood Dish" sketch was accidentally shown.

(35.16)

• Vampire Weekend performed "Cousins" and "Giving Up the Gun".
• Brian Williams, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Mehmet Oz, Anthony Anderson, and Jeremy Sisto all appeared during the SNL Digital Short, "Zach Drops by the Set".
• Paul Rudd and Frank Rich appeared during "What Up With That?", although Rich had no lines.
• During Don Pardo's announcement for the next show with Jude Law, his microphone did not work at first, but was fixed shortly after. The words "...With Musical Guest Pearl Jam" was the only thing heard.
• Galifianakis shaved his beard before the last sketch of the show, and wears a fake beard during the goodnights.^[17]

(35.17)

• Pearl Jam performed "Just Breathe" and "Unthought Known" and appeared in the "Twilight Zone" Nightmare at 20,000 Feet parody.
• Julian Casablancas sang "Boombox" with The Lonely Island in the SNL Digital Short.
• Jerry Seinfeld cameoed on Weekend Update to do "Really?! With Seth and Jerry".

(35.18)

• Confirmed on air

(35.19)

• ^{[18] [19]}

(35.TBA)

• With this episode White, at age 88, will become the oldest person ever to host the show. She will surpass Miskel Spillman who, in 1977, hosted the show at age 80.
• ^[20]