Over the weekend, for the first time in 27 years, Saturday Night Live broadcast a brand-new episode for the fourth week in a row. "We haven't done that since 1976," Lorne Michaels told the New York Times last month, "when I came to the conclusion that it is a very bad idea." Still, they had to make up for shows (and advertising) lost during the writers' strike, so — even though this probably wasn't the cast to try it with — they did it anyway. How did they manage to pull it off?

By making Kristen Wiig do all the work! Of Saturday night's nine live skits, Wiig was in six, plus two pretaped MacGruber shorts. She played Silda Spitzer, a game-show contestant, Suze Orman, a customer at Benihana, a country singer, and the Target lady. (It's also just occurred to us that Mariah Carey's second musical performance could've actually been a parody of her first, with Wiig playing Mariah Carey, though this is probably unlikely.) It's a testament to Wiig's talent and stamina that this weekend's episode wasn't a total disaster or even any less funny than the three previous ones. But where were the other cast members? Dead from exhaustion? Acting in Judd Apatow movies? In any case, poor Kristen Wiig is probably owed a "thank-you" and a vacation.

'SNL' Is Ready to Make Up for Lost Time [NYT]