Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-first season in the 2005-06 television season on NBC. The season began on October 1, 2005, and ended on May 20, 2006, with 19 episodes in all. The season was cut one episode short due to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. A 30th anniversary special for the show was planned, but the plan was scrapped due to budget cuts.
Before the start of the season, featured player Rob Riggle was let go from the show. Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson were both promoted to repertory status while Jason Sudeikis remained a featured player.
The show then added three new cast members to the show. They included: Los Angeles-based sketch comedian Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig of The Groundlings. Wiig debuted on the show in November, in the episode hosted by Jason Lee. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone would be a notable force for creating SNL Digital Shorts. One such short was "Lazy Sunday"; after it aired during the Jack Black episode it became an Internet phenomenon.
Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph missed a few episodes in this season due to both of them being pregnant and on maternity leave. Fey's place on Weekend Update was briefly taken over by Horatio Sanz until her return in the episode hosted by Catherine Zeta-Jones, making Sanz the first Hispanic Weekend Update anchor. Fey returned to the show before her maternity leave time was up. Maya Rudolph, however, appeared on the first episode of the new season, and then went on maternity leave and returned in February, in the episode hosted by Steve Martin.
Release Date
Oct 1, 2005
Episodes
19 episodes
CAST
Kenan Thompson
Self - Various Characters
Kristen Wiig
Self - Various Characters
Amy Poehler
Self - Various Characters
Seth Meyers
Self - Various Characters
EPISODES
1
Steve Carell/Kanye West
Oct 1, 2005
2
Jon Heder/Ashlee Simpson
Oct 8, 2005
3
Catherine Zeta-Jones / Franz Ferdinand
Oct 22, 2005
4
Lance Armstrong/Sheryl Crow
Oct 29, 2005
5
Jason Lee/Foo Fighters
Nov 12, 2005
6
Eva Longoria/Korn
Nov 19, 2005
7
Dane Cook/James Blunt
Dec 3, 2005
8
Alec Baldwin/Shakira
Dec 10, 2005
9
Jack Black/Neil Young
Dec 17, 2005
10
Scarlett Johanson/Death Cab for Cutie
Jan 14, 2006
11
Peter Sarsgaard/The Strokes
Jan 21, 2006
12
Steve Martin/Prince
Feb 4, 2006
13
Natalie Portman/Fall Out Boy
Mar 4, 2006
14
Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys
Mar 11, 2006
15
Antonio Banderas/Mary J. Blige
Apr 8, 2006
16
Lindsay Lohan/Pearl Jam
Apr 15, 2006
17
Tom Hanks/Red Hot Chili Peppers
May 6, 2006
18
Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Paul Simon
May 13, 2006
19
Kevin Spacey/Nelly Furtado
May 20, 2006
Details
Language
English
Country
Production
Network
Metadata
TMDB ID
59618