Saturday Night Live season 25

The twenty-fifth season of Saturday Night Live (also branded Saturday Night Live 25 and SNL25), an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 2, 1999, and May 20, 2000.

Cast

There were no changes to the cast prior to the start of this season, as everyone from the previous season returned. Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, and Chris Parnell were all promoted to repertory status. The show then added two new featured players as this season progressed: Rachel Dratch, a performer with The Second City in Chicago, and Maya Rudolph of The Groundlings.

In July 1999, when executive producer Lorne Michaels held auditions for the season, NBC introduced a new contract for first-year cast members, replacing the five- or six-year deals they had used in the past. The terms were established by NBC executives Scott Sassa and Garth Ancier. According to Peter Bogdanovich, the new contract came with the following terms:

"SNL, they are the not-ready-for-prime-time players. These are people who are just starting out. I challenge you to name a network, much less a show, that has created this many stars, ever ... All we're asking is, somebody who comes in and is, basically, virtually unknown and young has an opportunity to be on a very, very powerful sketch-comedy show and to be able to launch a film career and be in sitcoms. I think that's a pretty great opportunity."

— Scott Sassa, NBC's West Coast president, at the network's summer press presentation in Pasadena, California

• NBC can take a Saturday Night Live cast member off the show any time after their second year on the program and put them in an NBC sitcom.
• A cast member has the option of saying no to the first two shows proposed by NBC, but must accept the third deal.
• NBC dictates the length of the sitcom contract, which can run as long as six years.
• SNL Films, co-owned by Paramount Pictures, NBC and Lorne Michaels, has a three-movie option that would pay the star a set $75,000 for the first film, $150,000 for the second and $300,000 for the third, rates that used to be negotiable.
• NBC has the option of paying those same amounts to force a cast member to say no to a film deal offered to them by another studio.

The starting salary remained $5,000 per episode.

This would be the final season for longtime cast members Tim Meadows, Cheri Oteri, and Colin Quinn. Meadows had been on the show for 10 seasons since 1991 (a record at the time); while Oteri and Quinn had both been on for five seasons since 1995.

Cast roster

Repertory players

• Jimmy Fallon
• Will Ferrell
• Ana Gasteyer
• Darrell Hammond
• Chris Kattan
• Tim Meadows
• Tracy Morgan
• Cheri Oteri
• Chris Parnell
• Colin Quinn
• Horatio Sanz
• Molly Shannon

Featured players

• Rachel Dratch (first episode: October 23, 1999)
• Maya Rudolph (first episode: May 6, 2000)

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Starting this season, Tina Fey is credited as the writing supervisor, which means that she was promoted to the head writer position, making her the first woman in this role.

However, previous head writer Adam McKay (who by this point, had been a writer since 1995) returned to the writing staff this season.

The Jennifer Aniston episode would mark the final episode for longtime writer/producer Tim Herlihy (a writer for the show since 1994), as he left the show after 5½ years.

Superstar film

A Superstar film, based on the Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, was released on October 8, 1999. Cast members Will Ferrell, Mark McKinney and Molly Shannon appear in the film. The film did modestly well at the box office but was panned by critics.