Overview
- Witherspoon told the Armchair Expert podcast she found leading SNL’s first show back after the Sept. 11 attacks overwhelming and “would give that zero stars.”
- She recalls Lorne Michaels personally asking her to keep the tone light, noting appearances by Rudy Giuliani, FDNY first responders and a Paul Simon performance.
- The Sept. 29, 2001 episode opened with Simon singing The Boxer in front of firefighters before the show returned to sketches.
- Witherspoon says she felt out of her depth, “completely left my body,” and did not return to host again until 2015.
- She was fresh off Legally Blonde and caring for a one-year-old, and the night also marked Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers’ first SNL episode; later accounts from a former writer criticized her light monologue as a tonal mismatch.