SNL 1-24-04 Dress Rehearsal Footage?
 

Did anybody else happen to notice on this weekend's repeat of the Elijah Wood episode that the sketch with the boy's choir was different from when it originally aired? I happened to have that episode on tape and checked after I had some suspicion, and sure enough it was different. Some lines were altered, others added and/or subtracted, and the delivery was obviously different on many lines. I can't figure out why they would change it, aside from a few flubbed lines or a bit of overlapping dialog on the original, but I'm assuming this second version must have been from the dress rehearsal. Has anyone every noticed this before, or know why they might have done it? I consider myself a pretty big SNL fan and have never noticed it before.

There was a "Weakest Link" sketch that they did this same thing with a few years ago. They changed the final line in the sketch, also. I don't know why.

This actually happens quite a bit.

I remember reading in the 'Live From New York' book that many times actors wished (don't remember if they actually did) the network would use the dress rehearsal version for the West Coast feed. So I would assume that this would not be the first time it has been done.

It has been noted in othe threads before as well, beit because of different lines, technical troubles, etc. A lot of times, the dress footage is superior to the final finished show product.