Eli Manning, Archie Manning, Cooper Manning and Olivia Manning make cameos; Dan Aykroyd has a cameo during Weekend Update as a crying fan of Sanjaya Malakar.
Manning hosted the show on his thirty-first birthday. During the goodnights, a cake was wheeled out by his brothers Eli and Cooper and a rendition of Happy Birthday was performed by the Saturday Night Live band.
Darrell Hammond is again absent from the live showing of this episode (his Weekend Update commentary as Rudy Giuliani was cut after dress-rehearsal)
The dress rehearsal version of the monologue originally had Amy Poehler as a New England Patriots fan who heckles Manning. Both the dress rehearsal and the live show monologue had the joke about Tom Brady and the circus having two more rings than Manning.
This episode dominated its timeslot with a 3.5 rating, 15 share in 18-49 and 7.9 million viewers overall.
Carrie Underwood is the second American Idol-winner to appear on SNL, with Kelly Clarkson being the first. Underwood performed "Before He Cheats" and "Wasted."
In an interview, Simpsons show runner Al Jean has cited this episode as the reason why he picked Peyton Manning to cameo (along with Manning's brothers, Eli and Cooper, who also cameoed on this episode) on the season 21 episode "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?".
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