The twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 1995, and May 18, 1996.

After the low ratings and negative reviews of the previous season, NBC executives necessitated significant changes for the show, including a major cast overhaul.

Morello noted that members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance.

[6] Though MADtv never posed a serious ratings threat to SNL, it did at times beat the NBC show in the key demographic of twenty-and thirtysomething male audiences.

NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer said, "If you look at the past several seasons, we haven't had breakout performers like Dana Carvey or Billy Crystal.

"[2] Only five cast members returned from the previous season: Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon, and David Spade.

Ferrell and Oteri's fellow Groundling Chris Kattan,[12] along with newly hired staff writer Colin Quinn,[13] also joined as featured players for the final six episodes of the season.

Jim Downey was removed as head writer as part of NBC executives' changes,[18] but remained on the writing staff, now producing Weekend Update with Norm Macdonald.

Steve Higgins (who was made head writer with Fred Wolf),[2] Adam McKay,[19] Paula Pell,[20] Frank Sebastiano, Hugh Fink, Dennis McNicholas, Harper Steele and Colin Quinn joined the staff.