Saturday Night Live season 31


The thirty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 1, 2005, and May 20, 2006. 19 episodes were produced due to the 2006 Winter Olympics and network budget cuts.

History

This season is notable for the people who hosted the show. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an SNL cast member from 1982 to 1985 under Dick Ebersol, became the first former female cast member to come back and host the show. Gilda Radner was originally supposed to host in 1988, but could not due to the Writers Guild of America strike and then Radner's death the following year. This season is also known for the return of such frequent hosts as Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, and Steve Martin.
This season saw the seventh death of a former cast member, Charles Rocket, who committed suicide six days after the premiere. Rocket's suicide is the first death of an SNL cast member who never worked under Lorne Michaels, and is the first death of a Weekend Update anchor until Norm Macdonald in 2021.
This season was the first to broadcast in high-definition, after 30 years of broadcasting in standard definition.

Cast

Before the start of the season, featured player Rob Riggle was let go from the show after one season. Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson were both promoted to repertory status, while Jason Sudeikis remained a featured player.
The show added three new cast members: Los Angeles-based improviser 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".
Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph missed episodes due to 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. Fey returned to the show before her maternity leave time was up. 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.
This would be the final season for Fey, Rachel Dratch, Mitchell, Chris Parnell, and Sanz, as well as the last for longtime director Beth McCarthy-Miller. Dratch and Fey both left the show to focus on 30 Rock. McCarthy-Miller left on her own terms and was replaced by Don Roy King. Parnell, Sanz, and Mitchell were let go due to NBC budget cuts.

Cast roster

Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

There were three head writers for the 31st season: Harper Steele, Tina Fey, and Seth Meyers.
Meyers was initially named as the sole writing supervisor at the start of the season, and was named as co-head writer with the Scarlett Johansson-hosted episode.
Future cast member Colin Jost joined the writing staff this season. As do Samberg's Lonely Island cohorts Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, as well as future head writer/Senior Writer Bryan Tucker.
Paula Pell returned to the show mid-season, after leaving at the end of the previous season, due to her sitcom Thick and Thin failing.
Longtime writer Jim Downey skipped this season but would return with the next season.
Lastly, in addition to Fey, this was also the final season for fellow writers T. Sean Shannon, Frank Sebastiano, J. B. Smoove, and Liz Cackowski. It is unknown if Shannon, Sebastiano, Smoove, and/or Cackowski left on their own, or if they were let go due to the budget cuts.

Episodes