The third season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 24, 1977, and May 20, 1978.

The Not Ready for Prime Time Players bold denotes Weekend Update anchor In the "Anyone Can Host" episode—for which a contest found a non-celebrity to host the show—the musical guest, Elvis Costello, halted his band, the Attractions, seven seconds into the song "Less Than Zero", launching into "Radio Radio", an as-yet unreleased song critical of mainstream broadcasting.

Although by most accounts the altercation had been at least partially instigated by John Belushi, he was the one (along with Dan Aykroyd) who separated Murray and Chase moments before the entire cast regrouped in front of the live cameras.

[2] Comedy team/SNL writers Al Franken and Tom Davis were billed as special guests for five episodes this season, in which they performed their own segment.

Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill's brother) and Don Novello (best known for his character Father Guido Sarducci) joined the writing staff midway through the season on January 21, 1978.