• U2 performs "Breathe", "Moment of Surrender" and "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)".
• A new opening sequence, which mentions SNL's 35 years on-air, debuts with this episode.
• During the "Biker Chick Chat" sketch, 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.
• Brian Austin Green cameoed in the Transformers Digital Short.
• Nasim Pedrad and Jenny Slate's first episode as cast members.

• Lady Gaga performs "Paparazzi" and a medley of songs including "Bad Romance", "LoveGame" and "Poker Face". She appears with Madonna in Deep House Dish, and in another sketch after her second performance.
• Elijah Wood appears in the SNL Digital Short.
• Scarlett Johansson (Reynolds' then-wife) appears in the "Porcelain Fountains" ad portraying the same Lexi character she played during her two hosting appearances.
• Darrell Hammond appears as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during Weekend Update.

• Regina Spektor performs "Eet" and "The Calculation".
• Justin Long appears as Matthew McConaughey in a sketch called "Celebrity Ghost Stories". He summarized the plot of McConaughey's movie, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

• Shakira performs "She Wolf" and "Did It Again".
• Dwayne Johnson made a cameo reprising his role as "The Rock" Obama in the cold opening.
• During the advertisements, outtakes from dress rehearsal from the 1990s and 2000s were shown.^[7]
• James Franco appears as himself in the sketch "What Up with That?".
• Saoirse Ronan appears in the audience during the "What Up With That?" sketch.

• Taylor Swift performs "The Monologue Song (La La La)" (during her opening monologue), "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.
• Kenan Thompson introduces Swift's first musical performance.

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

• Dave Matthews Band performs "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 with Jack Johnson", while Bill Hader portrayed Matthews.
• Al Gore cameoed in the "What Up with That?" sketch and on Weekend Update, promoting NBC "Green Week" and his new book.
• Mindy Kaling cameoed in "What Up with That?" as the second guest.

• Rihanna performs "Russian Roulette" and "Hard" and appears in the SNL Digital Short.
• Young Jeezy performs with Rihanna for her second song.
• On this episode's installment of Weekend Update, Abby Elliott appears as actress-singer Brittany Murphy, following a report about Murphy's alleged firing from a recent film. This portion of Update was cut from reruns in light of Murphy's death later that month.
• The episode contains a notorious sketch that makes fun of domestic abuse.

• Bon Jovi performs "Superman Tonight" and "When We Were Beautiful".
• A memoriam picture of Heino Ripp, the original technical director, was shown before the goodnights.

• Muse performs "Uprising" and "Starlight".
• Mike Tyson and Jack McBrayer appear during "What Up with That?".
• This is the last episode to air during the 2000s.

• Alicia Keys performs "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart" and "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down" and appears in the SNL Digital Short.
• The original east coast airing was delayed 35 minutes due to the Cowboys-Eagles NFC Wild Card game's running long.
• This episode attracted 10.4 million viewers, and was the second highest-rated episode of the season.^[14]
• Charles Barkley's opening monologue features a cameo of Hannibal Buress who was a credited writer for this season.
• This is the first episode to air during the 2010s.

• The Ting Tings performs "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.
• Future SNL cast member Colin Jost and writer John Mulaney appear in the SNL Digital Short.

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

• Them Crooked Vultures performs "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and "New Fang". As well, Dave Grohl appears in a sketch after Them Crooked Vultures' second performance.

• Jennifer Lopez performs "Until It Beats No More" and "Starting Over".
• Kristen Wiig introduces Lopez's first musical performance.
• Kenan Thompson introduces Lopez's second musical performance.

• Vampire Weekend performs "Cousins" and "Giving Up the Gun".
• Brian Williams, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Mehmet Oz, Anthony Anderson, and Jeremy Sisto all appear during the SNL Digital Short, "Zach Drops by the Set".
• Paul Rudd and Frank Rich appear during "What Up with That?".
• Galifianakis shaved his beard before the last sketch of the show and wears a fake beard during the goodnights.^[20]

• Pearl Jam performs "Just Breathe" and "Unthought Known" and appears 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".

• Justin Bieber performs "Baby" and "U Smile" and appears in two sketches. Bieber also appears in Fey's monologue.
• Mark Sanchez and Steve Martin made cameo appearances during Fey's monologue.
• Fey reprised her impersonation of Sarah Palin on the fake commercial "The Sarah Palin Network".
• Fey received a 2010 Emmy Award nomination as herself for Guest Actress in a Comedy.^[23]

• Ke$ha performs "Tik Tok" and "Your Love Is My Drug".
• Phillippe promoted the film MacGruber, the first new SNL movie in over a decade.

• MGMT performs "Flash Delirium" and "Brian Eno".
• SNL writer John Mulaney delivers a Weekend Update commentary on girl scout cookies. Stefon also makes his Update debut, written by John Mulaney and Bill Hader.

• In early 2010, an online campaign was created on Facebook to get White to host an episode of the show. The group was called Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!^[27] The movement was sparked by White's appearance in a Snickers commercial aired during Super Bowl XLIV.^{[citation needed]} Because of this, White is the first person to ever host based on an internet movement created by fans. The commercial itself aired during one of the commercial breaks.
• With this episode, White, at age 88, is the oldest person ever to host the show, surpassing Miskel Spillman, the winner of SNL's "Anyone Can Host" contest in 1977.^[28]
• For the first set, Jay-Z performs a medley of "Public Service Announcement", "On to the Next One", "99 Problems", "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", and "Empire State of Mind," featuring back-up singer Bridget Kelly. During "99 Problems", Jay-Z's band samples "Points of Authority" by Linkin Park. For the second set, Jay-Z performs "Young Forever" with Mr Hudson, which he dedicated to White.
• Former SNL cast members Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon appear throughout the show. Gasteyer and Shannon reprised their characters from The Delicious Dish sketches. Shannon also reprised her character Sally O'Malley during Weekend Update. Rudolph reprised her impression of Whitney Houston during Weekend Update. Fey and Poehler returned to Update as well, to participate in Really!?!.
• This episode was nominated for seven 2010 Emmy Awards.
• White won an Emmy for Guest Actress in a Comedy for hosting.^[23]
• This episode was re-aired on January 1, 2022 as a tribute to White, as she had died the previous day on December 31, 2021.^[29]
• TV Ratings: 14.952 million viewers

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performs "I Should Have Known It" and "Jefferson Jericho Blues", two songs from their 2010 album Mojo. Petty appears in the SNL Digital Short.
• Steve Martin made a filmed cameo appearance in the opening monologue.
• Will Forte^[31] and Jenny Slate's final episode as cast members.

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.

Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis host the show as Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink, their recurring ESPN Classic sports announcer characters.

The special featured insight on the show during the 2000s: topics discussed include Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey as the new Weekend Update anchors after the departure of Colin Quinn, how SNL became popular for its spoofs on the 2000 United States presidential election, how the show's humor survived the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax scare, Will Ferrell's departure at the end of season 27 and the search for a replacement cast member to play George W. Bush, SNL's shaky years between seasons 28 and 30 due to Jimmy Fallon's and Horatio Sanz's cracking up on camera, Jimmy Fallon's departure from the show, Amy Poehler teaming up with Tina Fey for Weekend Update, the hiring of Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, and Kristen Wiig, and SNL regaining its popularity with the Digital Shorts, its return from the WGA strike of 2007–2008, the introduction of new fan-favorite hosts like Justin Timberlake and Jon Hamm, and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.