The fifth season of the American television sitcom '' The Big Bang Theory'' aired on CBS from September 22, 2011 to May 10, 2012. The season includes the 100th episode of the series. At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, ''The Big Bang Theory'' was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but '' Modern Family'' on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

won. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Series and Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series. Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) was nominated for

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The award is presented to the best performance by a lead actor in a television comedy series. Beginning with the 18th Primetime Emmy ...

for " The Werewolf Transformation", but lost out to Jon Cryer. Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for " The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", but lost out to Julie Bowen.

Overview

Penny regrets her sleeping with Raj and has become very good friends with Leonard, Leonard breaks up with Priya, Amy pushes Sheldon in their relationship eventually becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, Penny and the other women become a clique of their own, Howard prepares for his wedding and going into space to the International Space Station and Leonard asks Penny out as they begin "Leonard and Penny 2.0".

Cast

Main cast

* Johnny Galecki as Dr. Leonard Hofstadter * Jim Parsons as Dr. Sheldon Cooper * Kaley Cuoco as

Penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

Simon Helberg Simon Maxwell Helberg (born December 9, 1980) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Howard Wolowitz in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019), for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supp ...

as Howard Wolowitz * Kunal Nayyar as Dr. Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali * Mayim Bialik as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler *

Melissa Rauch Melissa Ivy Rauch (born June 23, 1980) is an American actress, model and comedian. She is known for playing Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'', for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Televi ...

as Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski

Special guest cast

* Brent Spiner as himself * Leonard Nimoy as Spock (voice)

Recurring cast

Christine Baranski Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American actress. She is a 15-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, winning once in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom ''Cybill'' ...

Dr. Beverly Hofstadter The American television sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'', created and executive produced by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007, while the American comedy spin-off prequel television series '' Young Sheldon'', cre ...

Aarti Mann Aarti Majumdar (born March 3, 1978), better known by her stage name Aarti Mann, is an American actress. She has starred in several television programs, including a part in the sci-fi drama ''Heroes'' following the show ''Never Have I Ever''. She ...

as Priya Koothrappali, * Brian George as Dr. V.M. Koothrappali * Alice Amter as Mrs. Koothrappali *

Carol Ann Susi Carol Ann Susi (February 2, 1952 – November 11, 2014) was an American actress whose career spanned 40 years. Her best known roles were probably her first and last; she debuted as the recurring character of semi-competent but likable intern Mo ...

Mrs. Wolowitz The American television sitcom '' The Big Bang Theory'', created and executive produced by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007, while the American comedy spin-off prequel television series '' Young Sheldon'', c ...

* Wil Wheaton as himself *

Kevin Sussman Kevin Sussman (born December 4, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He played Walter on the ABC comedy-drama ''Ugly Betty'' and Stuart Bloom on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory''. Starting with the sixth season of ''The Big Bang Theory ...

Stuart Bloom The American television sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'', created and executive produced by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007, while the American comedy spin-off prequel television series ''Young Sheldon'', creat ...

* Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper * John Ross Bowie as Dr. Barry Kripke *

Mike Massimino Michael James Massimino (born August 19, 1962) is an American professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University and a former NASA astronaut. He is the senior advisor of space programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Early li ...

as himself * Joshua Malina as

President Siebert The American television sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'', created and executive produced by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007, while the American Television comedy, comedy Spin-off (media), spin-off prequel televi ...

Vernee Watson Vernee Christell Watson-Johnson (née Watson; born September 28, 1949) is an American actress, author, and acting coach. Watson-Johnson is best known for her recurring roles as Vernajean Williams on ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and as ...

as Althea * Casey Sander as Mike Rostenkowski *

Pasha Lychnikoff Pavel Dmitriyevich Lychnikov ( rus, Павел Дмитриевич Лычников) is a Russian-American television, voice, film and theatre actor, who lives and works in the United States. Early life and education Lychnikoff was born in Mos ...

as Dimitri Rezinov * Stephen Hawking as himself

Guest cast

* Katie Leclerc as Emily * Courtney Ford as Alice *

Blake Berris Blake Everett Berris is an American actor known for his roles both in independent films and television. Career Berris originated the role of Nick Fallon on NBC's soap opera ''Days of Our Lives'' for which he received an Emmy nomination. Other ...

as Kevin *

Ashley Austin Morris Ashley Austin Morris (born Ashley Morris, ) is an American comedian, playwright, and stage, television, and film actress. She is best known for her role as Francine Carruthers in the revival of the PBS Kids children's series ''The Electric Co ...

as Laura *

Josh Brener Joshua Max Brener is an American actor. He played the roles of Kyle on the IFC series ''Maron'' and Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti on the HBO series ''Silicon Valley''. In animation, he provides the voices of Donatello on ''Rise of the Teenage Mutan ...

as Dale * Lance Barber as Jimmy Speckerman *

Jonathan Schmock Jonathan Schmock (born February 26, 1956) is an American actor, television director, producer, writer and editorial cartoonist. He has worked on numerous film and television projects including ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'', where he played the ma ...

as Jonathan * Jim Turner as Reverend White *

Becky O'Donohue Becky or Beckie is a feminine given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Rebecca. It may refer to: People * Rebecca Allison (born 1946), American cardiologist and transgender activist * Rebecca Becky Anderson (born 1967), British journalist ...

as Siri * Lynn Phillip Seibel as Professor Rothman * Peter Onorati as Angelo * Chriselle Almeida as Lakshmi * Robert Clotworthy as Dave Roeger (voice) * Amy Tolsky as Joan

Production

Several high-profile celebrities appear in the season. In "

The Transporter Malfunction The fifth season of the American sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' aired on CBS from September 22, 2011 to May 10, 2012. At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, ''The Big Bang Theory'' was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, ...

", actor Leonard Nimoy appears as a voice actor, playing an action-figure

Spock Spock is a Character (arts), fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), USS ''Enterprise ...

that Sheldon imagines talking to him. In the following episode, "

The Hawking Excitation "The Hawking Excitation" is the 21st episode of the fifth season of ''The Big Bang Theory'' that first aired on CBS on April 5, 2012. It is the 108th episode overall. After learning that Stephen Hawking is coming to lecture at Caltech, Howard (S ...

", cosmologist Stephen Hawking appears as a guest star. Astronaut

appears in " The Friendship Contraction" and " The Countdown Reflection". Stephen Hawking went on to appear in the season 6 episode " The Extract Obliteration" and the season 7 episode " The Relationship Diremption". Mike Massimino later appeared in the season 6 episodes " The Decoupling Fluctuation" and "

The Re-Entry Minimization The sixth season of the American sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' aired on CBS from September 27, 2012 to May 16, 2013. The series crossed the 20 million viewer mark for the first time with this season's " The Bakersfield Expedition", which along w ...

". The season finale depicts Howard Wolowitz traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a

Soyuz rocket The Soyuz (russian: Союз, meaning "union", GRAU index 11A511) was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed in the 1960s by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Kuybyshev, Soviet Union. It was commissioned to launch ...

. Thanks to technical consulting from astronaut

, who also plays himself on the show, the production crew was able to put together sets that realistically depicts the Soyuz capsule and the ISS. The Soyuz capsule was constructed based on photos from NASA, the

Kansas Cosmosphere Cosmosphere is a space museum and STEM education center in Hutchinson, Kansas, United States. It was previously known as the Kansas Cosmosphere. The museum houses over 13,000 spaceflight artifacts—the largest combined collection of US and ...

for dimensions, and scavenged parts from an aerospace junkyard in Los Angeles.

Episodes

Release

Critical reception

The fifth season received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of eight critics gave the season a positive review, with an average rating of 8.4/10. Oliver Sava of '' The A.V. Club'' gave the season a B+ rating. He described Raj as the "weak link of the show" as he has not " volvedlike the rest of the cast" and is "trapped in season one mode". Sava gave high ratings to episodes where Raj did not feature prominently, such as " The Pulled Groin Extrapolation" or " The Russian Rocket Reaction" and described " The Wiggly Finger Catalyst" (an episode focusing on Raj) as "one of the series' worst", giving it a D+ rating. Sava's favorite relationship on the series is between Amy and Penny. Jenna Busch of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

disliked the previous season but said that season 5 "is far more balanced"; Busch gave season 5 episodes ratings between 5.5 and 9, with an average rating of 8.0. She also noted that the show has "matured" by including other women in the main cast. Tom Gliatto from '' People'' gave the season 3 out of 4 stars, stating that it is "bright and obvious as a cartoon, yet written with a clean, precise patter of jokes".

Awards

At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, ''The Big Bang Theory'' was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but '' Modern Family'' on

Distribution

The season premiered on CBS on September 22, 2011. It was released on DVD with an aspect ratio of 16:9 format on September 11, 2011, in Region 1, on September 2, 2012, in Region 2 and October 3, 2012, in Region 4. The episodes can also be purchased on Amazon Video or the iTunes store in the US.

Broadcast

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Canadian broadcast

In Canada, ''The Big Bang Theory'' aired on

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...

. The season premiere (" The Skank Reflex Analysis") garnered 3.72 million viewers and the finale was watched by 4.04 million households. Most episodes were the most watched programme in Canada that week. The highest rating in season 5 was 4.05 million, for " The Infestation Hypothesis", and the lowest rating was 3.17 million, for " The Stag Convergence".

References

;General references * * * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Bang Theory, The 2011 American television seasons 2012 American television seasons The Big Bang Theory seasons