Saturday Night Live - Season 31
Description: 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.
Episodes
Steve Carell/Kanye West
Aired: Oct 1, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Will Forte! Sketches include "Bush Addresses the Na...
Jon Heder/Ashlee Simpson
Aired: Oct 8, 2005
Sketches include "George W. Bush and Harriet Miers," "Taco Town," "Caitlin's Sci...
Catherine Zeta-Jones / Franz Ferdinand
Aired: Oct 22, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Darrell Hammond! Sketches include "Bush's Spontaneo...
Lance Armstrong/Sheryl Crow
Aired: Oct 29, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Darrell Hammond! Sketches include "The Libby Indict...
Jason Lee/Foo Fighters
Aired: Nov 12, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Will Forte! Sketches include "Hardball," "JJ Casual...
Eva Longoria/Korn
Aired: Nov 19, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Will Forte! Sketches include "Hardball," "JJ Casual...
Dane Cook/James Blunt
Aired: Dec 3, 2005
Live from New York, it's... the entire cast of SNL! (more or less) Sketches incl...
Alec Baldwin/Shakira
Aired: Dec 10, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Alec Baldwin! Sketches include "Saddam's Cell," "Tyl...
Jack Black/Neil Young
Aired: Dec 17, 2005
Live from New York, it's... Will Forte! Sketches include "A Holiday Message from...
Scarlett Johanson/Death Cab for Cutie
Aired: Jan 14, 2006
Live from New York, it's... the voice of Robert Smigel! Sketches include "The 70...
Peter Sarsgaard/The Strokes
Aired: Jan 21, 2006
Live from New York, it's... Seth Meyers! Sketches include "Anderson Cooper 360,...
Steve Martin/Prince
Aired: Feb 4, 2006
Filmed in New York, it's... Steve Martin! Sketches include "The Sabotage of Bald...
Natalie Portman/Fall Out Boy
Aired: Mar 4, 2006
Sketches include "Bush Responds to Criticism," "Nelson's Baby Toupees," "Jamba J...
Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys
Aired: Mar 11, 2006
Live from New York, it's... Darrell Hammond! Sketches include "Bush Responds to...
Antonio Banderas/Mary J. Blige
Aired: Apr 8, 2006
Live from New York (for the 600th time), its... Seth Meyers! Sketches include "...
Lindsay Lohan/Pearl Jam
Aired: Apr 15, 2006
Live from New York, it's... Lindsay Lohan! Sketches include "The Situation Room,...
Tom Hanks/Red Hot Chili Peppers
Aired: May 6, 2006
Live from New York, its... Will Forte! Sketches include "Bill Frist's Gas Plan,...
Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Paul Simon
Aired: May 13, 2006
Live from New York, its... Al Gore! Sketches include "Parallel Universe Address ...
Kevin Spacey/Nelly Furtado
Aired: May 20, 2006
Live from New York, its... Rachel Dratch! Sketches include "Anderson Cooper 360,...