The thirty-sixth season of ''
Saturday Night Live'', an American
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
series, originally aired in the United States on
NBC between September 25, 2010, and May 21, 2011.
Longtime announcer
Don Pardo announced that he would pre-record his parts from his home in Arizona rather than perform live in New York City.
Cast
Prior to the start of the season, longtime cast member
Will Forte left the show after a total of eight seasons from
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
to
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
. Featured player
Jenny Slate was let go from the show after one season.
Abby Elliott and
Bobby Moynihan were both upgraded to repertory status, while
Nasim Pedrad remained a featured player.
Following Forte and Slate's departures, the show hired four new cast members:
ImprovOlympic alumni
Vanessa Bayer and
Paul Brittain, stand-up comic and impressionist
Jay Pharoah, and comedic actor
Taran Killam of
The Groundlings. Killam is the second cast member after Kenan Thompson to be a cast member on a
Nickelodeon kids' sketch show (''
The Amanda Show'') and the second cast member after
Jeff Richards to be a cast member on ''
MADtv''.
Cast roster
Repertory players
*
Fred Armisen
*
Abby Elliott
*
Bill Hader
*
Seth Meyers
Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. He hosts ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'', a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to that, he was a cast member and head writer for NBC ...
*
Bobby Moynihan
*
Andy Samberg
*
Jason Sudeikis
*
Kenan Thompson
*
Kristen Wiig
Featured players
*
Vanessa Bayer
*
Paul Brittain
*
Taran Killam
*
Nasim Pedrad
*
Jay Pharoah
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
In August 2010, Michaels hired
Second City Theater
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of Time in physics, time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally t ...
writers
Tom Flanigan and Shelly Gossman.
''
Portlandia'' co-creator
Jonathan Krisel joined the staff as a writer, producer, and creative collaborator on several
Digital Shorts
An ''SNL'' Digital Short is one in a series of comedic and often musical video shorts created for NBC's '' Saturday Night Live''. The origin of the Digital Short brand is credited to staff writer Adam McKay, who created content for the show in ...
.
Heather Anne Campbell
Heather Anne Campbell is an American writer, comedian, podcast host, and actress.
Life and career
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Campbell began studying improvisational comedy at iO Theater at the age of fifteen, under the tutelage of Del Clos ...
, a performer from the
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles, was also added to the writing staff.
Sarah Schneider, a regular writer and performer for
CollegeHumor, was a guest writer for the last five episodes of the season before joining full-time for season 37.
This was also the final episode for longtime writer/
Lonely Island member
Akiva Schaffer (a role he had been in since
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
), as he left the show, after six years, but would contribute to
SNL Digital Shorts over the following season.
Additionally, this was the final episode for longtime ''
Weekend Update'' writer Doug Abeles (who had written for the segment since
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
), as he left the show after 10 years
; as well as
Simon Rich (who previously joined the writing staff in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
), as he left after four years.
Episodes
Specials
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saturday Night Live season 36
36
Saturday Night Live in the 2010s
2010 American television seasons
2011 American television seasons
Television shows directed by Don Roy King