Opening montage

Kristen Wiig is added to the cast as a new cast member/featured player. Around this point of the season, SNL has begun a very short-lived experiment in which they have Don Pardo tape his announcements from home, typically only recording the announcements of each week’s musical guest and host while SNL uses stock audio of Don announcing the cast. That’s VERY noticeable tonight, because when announcing Kristen Wiig, who happens to be the last cast member seen in this opening montage and is a cast member who’s name SNL obviously didn’t already have stock audio of Don announcing since this is her first episode, Don’s voice abruptly changes to a COMPLETELY different pitch and COMPLETELY different energy (very low enthusiasm), and it remains that way for the rest of tonight’s montage when he’s announcing the musical guest and host. The difference in Don’s pitch and energy is jarring. SNL would fix this in the following episode by having Don tape a new announcement of Kristen Wiig’s name that matches the pitch and energy of his stock audio announcements of the rest of the cast.

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