Kiefer Sutherland's name is mentioned in this episode in connection with the series finale of 24. The previous episode saw Sutherland's daughter, Sarah Sutherland, feature on the show, playing the part of Mary, the college student who Charlie wanted Don to do an interview with.
The title of the episode, "What Kind Of Day Has It Been", is the fourth time Aaron Sorkin has used this title. It was the title of the last episode of the first season for Sports Night (1998) and The West Wing (1999), and also for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006), where it was the last episode.
In the flashback sequence, Will references Aaron Sorkin's first fictional news show, Sports Night. The softer version of Will goes to the first break with the words, "so stick around." This is the same tag line that Dan and Casey used throughout the series when going to the first commercial break.
The guitar Jeff Daniels plays is a 2012 custom signature edition OM copy by The Martin Guitar Company of his personal guitar, a 1934 Martin C-2 archtop guitar conversion.
Near the end of the episode when they are all back in The Newsroom, as they scan the area you can catch a glimpse of a story of Aaron Hernandez on one of the monitors.
