Season 5

Season Five of Glee aired between September 26, 2013 and May 13, 2014. The first 8 episodes aired on Thursdays at 9PM EST before moving back to Tuesdays at 8PM EST for the remainder of the season. The premiere was originally set for September 19, but was postponed for a week due to Cory Monteith's death.

The season saw Glee celebrating its landmark 100th episode in a two-part special event. The episodes aired on March 18 and March 25, 2014, respectively.

For the season, Melissa Benoist, Jacob Artist, Becca Tobin, Blake Jenner, and Alex Newell were promoted to series regulars, as their characters were only recurring in Season Four. Amber Riley, Heather Morris, Mark Salling, and Harry Shum Jr. were reduced to recurring guest stars after previously being in the main cast.

Due to Cory Monteith's passing, the show saw his character's death in the third episode of the season, which displayed a tribute to the late actor and character alike. Subsequent episodes also dealt with his death in different ways.

Following Monteith's death, production of Glee was halted for three weeks. Consequently, the season has only 20 episodes, instead of 22, like the previous seasons.

Main Cast

 * Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel (20/20)
 * Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson (20/20)
 * Lea Michele as Rachel Berry (20/20)
 * Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans (19/20) (episodes 1-17, 19-20)
 * Kevin McHale as Artie Abrams (18/20) (episodes 1-16, 19-20)
 * Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez (15/20) (episodes 1-4, 6-13, 17-19)
 * Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester (14/20) (episodes 1-13, 17)
 * Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester (14/20) (episodes 1-13, 17)
 * Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina Cohen-Chang (14/20) (episodes 1-13, 17)
 * Jacob Artist as Jake Puckerman (13/20) (episodes 1-13)
 * Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose (13/20) (episodes 1-13)
 * Blake Jenner as Ryder Lynn (13/20) (episodes 1-13)
 * Alex Newell as Unique Adams (13/20) (episodes 1-13)
 * Becca Tobin as Kitty Wilde (13/20) (episodes 1-13)

Special Guest Stars

 * Peter Facinelli as Rupert Campion (4/20) (episodes 1-2, 5, 9)
 * Demi Lovato as Dani (4/20) (episodes 2, 4, 7, 10)
 * Shirley MacLaine as June Dolloway (2/20) (episodes 18, 20)
 * Kristin Chenoweth as April Rhodes (2/20)  (episodes 12-13)
 * Ioan Gruffudd as Paolo San Pablo (2/20)  (episodes 1, 5)
 * Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holliday (2/20)  (episodes 12-13)
 * Tyra Banks as Bichette (1/20) (episode 6)
 * Jackée as herself (1/20) (episode 11)
 * Marlee Matlin as herself (1/20) (episode 11)
 * Joanna Rohrback as herself (1/20) (episode 11)
 * Whoopi Goldberg as Carmen Tibideaux (1/20) (episode 15)
 * Chris Parnell as Mario (1/20) (episode 17)
 * June Squibb as Maggie Banks (1/20) (episode 19)
 * Tim Conway as Marty Rogers (1/20) (episode 19)
 * Billy Dee Williams as Andy Collins (1/20) (episode 19)

Guest Stars

 * Amber Riley as Mercedes Jones (12/20) (episodes 1, 3, 11-20)
 * Lauren Potter as Becky Jackson (11/20) (episodes 4-13, 17)
 * Erinn Westbrook as Bree (7/20) (episodes 1-7)
 * Adam Lambert as Elliott Gilbert (5/20) (episodes 4, 7, 9-10, 14)
 * Iqbal Theba as Mr. Figgins (5/20) (episodes 1-3, 7, 9)
 * Michael Lerner as Sidney Greene (4/20) (episodes 14-15, 17-18)
 * Dot-Marie Jones as Shannon Beiste (4/20) (episodes 3, 8-10)
 * Mike O'Malley as Burt Hummel (4/20) (episodes 1, 3, 11, 15)
 * Christopher Cousins as Superintendent Bob Harris (3/20) (episodes 1, 5, 7)
 * NeNe Leakes as Roz Washington (3/20) (episodes 1-2, 11)
 * Mark Salling as Noah Puckerman (3/20) (episodes 3, 12-13)
 * Heather Morris as Brittany Pierce (3/20) (episodes 12-13, 20)
 * Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang (3/20) (episodes 3, 12-13)
 * Dianna Agron as Quinn Fabray (2/20) (episodes 12-13)
 * Earlene Davis as Andrea Carmichael (2/20) (episodes 5, 17)
 * Bill A. Jones as Rod Remington (2/20) (episodes 5, 17)
 * Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury (2/20) (episodes 3, 10)
 * Christopher Curry as Gunther (2/20) (episodes 1-2)
 * Phoebe Strole as Penny Owen (2/20) (episodes 2, 4)
 * Romy Rosemont as Carole Hudson-Hummel (2/20) (episodes 3, 11)
 * Max Adler as David Karofsky (1/20) (episode 17)
 * Chace Crawford as Biff McIntosh (1/20) (episode 12)
 * Grant Gustin as Sebastian Smythe (1/20) (episode 1)
 * Trisha Rae Stahl as Millie Rose (1/20) (episode 6)
 * Josh Sussman as Jacob Ben Israel (1/20) (episode 17)

Co-Stars

 * Brad Ellis as Brad (7/20) (episodes 3-5, 7, 11-13)
 * Ryan Heinke as Brett Bukowski (5/20) (episodes 2, 4-5, 7-8)
 * Pamela Chan as Dottie Kazatori (2/20) (episodes 2-3)

Major events

 * Blaine and Kurt get back together and engaged and overcome obstacles in their relationship, such as living together in New York and Blaine's work-relationship with June Dolloway.
 * Artie and Kitty start a relationship and eventually break up.
 * Tina becomes Prom Queen 2013.
 * Sue becomes Principal at McKinley, while Figgins is demoted to Janitor.
 * Rachel is cast as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of "Funny Girl".
 * Santana becomes Rachel's understudy and their consequent feud and reconciliation.
 * Rachel drops out of NYADA to focus on her Broadway career.
 * Rachel leaves Broadway to pursue a career in television.
 * Finn's death and its consequences to the New Directions, Will, and McKinley alumni for the remainder of the series.
 * Kurt creates his first cover band, Pamela Lansbury, but due to lack of success and the feud between Santana and Rachel, he creates a new one: One Three Hill.
 * Marley and Jake's relationship and eventual break-up after Jake's affair with Bree.
 * The loss at the 2013 Nationals and the subsequent disbandment of the New Directions.
 * April and Holly's return to McKinley to honour and later help save the glee club.
 * Brittany and Santana get back together.
 * Puck and Quinn become a couple.
 * The graduation of several characters: Blaine, Sam, Brittany, Tina, Becky, and Artie
 * Tina's struggle to find a college.
 * Her acceptance to Brown University
 * Blaine, Sam, Artie, and Mercedes move to New York.
 * Sam and Mercedes' relationship and eventual breakup.
 * Sam's work as a model and quitting his modeling career to go back to Lima.
 * Mercedes leaves New York to go on a mall tour with Brittany and Santana.

Trivia

 * This is the first shortened season (20 episodes). Previous seasons had 22 episodes.
 * Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, and Lea Michele are the only three cast members to appear in every episode this season.
 * Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams) is absent for the first time in the series in Opening Night.
 * With his absence, there is no actor who has been present in every episode.
 * Kurt and Blaine have their respective last solos in this season.
 * Mercedes had more solos as a recurring character this season (with a total of five solos) than when she was a regular character last season (only one solo).
 * Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez) wore a black wig in later episodes of the season as she dyed her real hair blonde, which was not seen until Old Dog, New Tricks.
 * This is the only season where:
 * Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones) is not a series regular.
 * Jacob Artist (Jake Puckerman), Melissa Benoist (Marley Rose), Alex Newell (Unique Adams), Blake Jenner (Ryder Lynn), and Becca Tobin (Kitty Wilde) are series regulars.
 * They released more EPs (11) than any other season.
 * Will does not sing a solo.
 * Glee has the least amount of mash-ups with only two.
 * This is also the first season to not include a Madonna mash-up.
 * This is also the first season to not feature a mash-up competition.
 * There are less than two competition episodes in a season, with City of Angels being the only episode in which the Glee Club competes in all the season (in this case at Nationals).
 * This is also the only season in which there is no Sectionals competition.
 * There are no scenes set on the Gymnasium during the whole season.
 * They do not cover a song from  Chicago. The previous ones all consisted of exactly one Chicago number: Mr. Cellophane, Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag, Cell Block Tango and All That Jazz. Mr. Cellophane was reprised in the season six episode 2009.
 * This is the last season:
 * Naya Rivera and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) are series regulars.
 * Blaine, Jake, Marley, Ryder, Sam, and Unique appear as New Directions members.
 * Melissa Benoist appears.