NBC comedies return tonight

[BillBrasky]

3/4ths of NBC's prime time lineup return tonight with all new episodes. At 8 PM, an election year-themed special prime time edition of "Saturday Night Live" kicks off the night for the next two weeks. Following these 2 special shows, "30 Rock" will return in this time slot for a truncated 13-episode final season beginning October 4th.

At 8:30, "Up All Night" returns for a second season, with the producers of the show promising that this season will focus more on Will Arnett and Christina Applegate's characters and their experiences raising a child and less on Maya Rudolph's Ava character. Indeed, in tonight's show Ava's talk show is cancelled and her friendship with Applegate's Reagan is tested following this announcement.

At 9 PM, "The Office" begins its officially announced ninth and final season. Jim and Dwight are thrown off balance by the arrival of two new young employees (Clark Duke and Jake Lacy) that the others dub "the new Jim" and "Dwight, Jr." Andy comes back from Outward Bound leadership training with a desire for vengeance on Nellie (Catherine Tate). Reportedly Mindy Kaling (Kelly) will appear in tonight's episode before leaving for good to star in her own series on FOX, "The Mindy Project". There will also be an episode sometime this season called "The Farm" which will serve as a backdoor pilot for a new series centering around Dwight and his experiences running a bed and breakfast, which if picked up would air next season.

At 9:30, "Parks and Recreation" begins its fifth season with an episode set in Washington D.C., as Leslie and Andy visit Ben and April at their new jobs and Leslie feels overwhelmed by the city -- especially after meeting two of her idols (Senators Barbara Boxer and Olympia Snowe). Senator John McCain also guest stars in tonight's episode.

[BillBrasky]

Eesh....ratings for all these shows last night were not good.

The Office- 2.1 18-49 rating (46% down from last season's premiere)
Parks & Rec - 1.7 rating (roughly the same as the Season 4 finale)
Up All Night- 1.3 rating
SNL Weekend Update Thursday- 1.6 rating (69% down from the 5.1 2008's election special brought in)

So what happened here? Was there something else great on last night I'm not aware of? I think most other shows were in reruns, weren't they? I'm particularly confused as to why the SNL show did so horrible, I realize Obama and Romney aren't as interesting as Sarah Palin, but you'd still figure people would have tuned in during an election season to see SNL's take.
Did they just not advertise these shows enough?

In comparison, The New Normal has been averaging about a 2.2 rating and Go On a 3.4 (that show does have "The Voice" as a lead-in though)