'Saturday Night Live' will do more prime-time election specials

"Saturday Night Live" will return to primetime in September for a pair of election-themed specials.

The two specials will air at 8 p.m. ET Sept. 20 and 27. NBC left room on the schedule for them when it announced its premiere dates in June -- "Up All Night," "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" all premiere Sept. 20, but "30 Rock" doesn't move into the 8 o'clock spot until Oct. 4.

NBC had great success with its "SNL Weekend Update Thursday" specials in the run-up to the 2008 election. The three shows averaged about 9.5 million viewers and a 4.4 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic.

Without an election fueling them, a return engagement for "Weekend Update Thursday" the following year wasn't as successful, dropping to an average of 5.2 million viewers and a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic.