Doumanian's tenure as "SNL" executive producer was tumultuous. She hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance and Patrick Weathers as featured players. Then-unknown Eddie Murphy would join the show as a featured player on the fourth episode and was upgraded to repertory status on January 24, 1981. With its team of all-new writers and cast members, the show was plagued with problems from the start of the season and deemed a commercial disappointment, and suffered from competition with ABC's new weekend show, "Fridays", and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation import "SCTV", which NBC aired following the "Tonight Show" on Fridays, as well as budget cuts.