Country of origin United States Original network NBC | No. of episodes 22 | |
Original release September 25, 2010 (2010-09-25) – May 21, 2011 (2011-05-21) | ||
The thirty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 25, 2010, and May 21, 2011.
Contents
This season also debuted a new animated feature voiced by former SNL cast members, called "Greetings from American America", created by former SNL head writer Fred Wolf.
Long-time announcer Don Pardo announced that he would pre-record his parts from his home in Arizona rather than performing live in New York City.
Cast
Prior to the start of the season, many cast changes occurred. Will Forte, who had been with the show since 2002 (a total of 8 seasons), announced on August 26, 2010 that he would be leaving the show. Featured player Jenny Slate was let go from the show after only one season. Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan were promoted to repertory status, becoming the first featured players to be promoted since 2006.
The show hired four new cast members: Chicago improvisers Vanessa Bayer and Paul Brittain from ImprovOlympic; stand-up comic/impressionist Jay Pharoah; and comedic actor Taran Killam of The Groundlings, who, like Jeff Richards was a former cast member on SNL's rival sketch show, Mad TV (Killam was the show's youngest cast member at 19 years old).
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
In August 2010, Michaels hired Second City Theater writers Tom Flanigan and Shelly Gossman. Heather Anne Campbell, a performer from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater 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.