| Season Number: | 26 |
| Bgcolour: |
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| Image Alt: | The title card for the twenty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live. |
| Num Episodes: | 20 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Prev Season: | season 25 |
| Next Season: | season 27 |
| Episode List: | List of Saturday Night Live episodes |
The twenty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 7, 2000, and May 19, 2001.
This season featured satire of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, including the Republican and Democratic primaries, the campaigns of Vice President Gore, Texas Governor George W. Bush, and Ralph Nader, the Florida election recount, and the Bush v. Gore case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Before the start of the season, longtime cast members Tim Meadows,[1] Cheri Oteri,[2] and Colin Quinn[3] all left the show. Meadows had been on the show for 10 seasons since 1990, while Oteri and Quinn had both been on for five seasons since 1995. The show added two new featured players: SNL head writer Tina Fey and Second City comedian Jerry Minor.[4] Fey had been a writer on the show since 1997 and began as the show's head writer in 1999. Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph remained featured players. Minor was let go following this season.
This would be Molly Shannon's final season on the show.[5] Leaving midseason, she surpassed Victoria Jackson as the show's longest-serving female cast member (Amy Poehler would surpass Shannon's record seven years later).
Chris Parnell was fired at the end of this season, but then rehired midway through the next season. Executive producer Lorne Michaels would later admit he made a mistake in firing Parnell.[6]
With Colin Quinn's anchor seat on Weekend Update empty, Lorne Michaels decided to go back to the format used in the late 1970s with two anchors. Jimmy Fallon and head writer Tina Fey were picked to anchor the segment together.[7]
This season also marked the first time since Season 14 that John Goodman didn't host at all. He had previously hosted at least one episode per season for a ten-year stretch.
Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor
Jim Downey rejoins the writing staff this season.[8] James Anderson, who went on to write on SNL for decades, joins the writing staff as a new writer.[9] This was also the final season for Adam McKay (a writer since 1995)[10] and Robert Carlock (a writer since 1996)[11]
See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.
See main article: The Ladies Man (2000 film). Based on Leon Phelps' popular sketches, The Ladies Man film was released on October 13, 2000. The film's star Tim Meadows left Saturday Night Live at the end of the previous season but returned to promote the film in the first episode of this season. Cast members Will Ferrell and Chris Parnell and former SNL cast member Mark McKinney co-starred in this film. The movie was panned by critics and flopped at the box office.