Editor’s note: Mike Murray hosts Saturday Night Network’s weekly By the Numbers podcast, which this week will also cover SNL UK‘s own season finale. Click the embed at the top of this post to watch it live Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, or catch the replay afterward.
Will Ferrell had the fourth-most screen time for a cast member when Saturday Night Live celebrated 50 years in 2025. This week he returned to 8H, where he spent seven years as a cast member, to host for a sixth time. He was joined by the legendary Paul McCartney, whose history with SNL dates back to Season 1 when Lorne Michaels invited The Beatles to perform on the show for $3,000.
See how Ferrell and McCartney stacked up against the cast—and some surprise cameos—in the Season 51 finale.
Note: Our screen time calculation method prioritizes face time, meaning that any contiguous off-screen-but-in-scene moments and most partial-body appearances do not count. Screen time in the opening credits, bumpers, goodnights, and cut-for-time sketches is not included, nor do those portions factor into our assessment of an episode’s total running time.
Will Ferrell – 24:31 (38.8%)
An SNL cast member from 1995-2002, Ferrell has now tied Tina Fey for second place among alumni with his sixth episode as host; Chevy Chase leads with eight turns. In an episode with only four live sketches and one pretape, he ranked ninth among Season 51 hosts in screen time, while dominating each segment for an average of 03:29 per. Save for “Weekend Update,” Ferrell appeared in every segment, first as Jeffrey Epstein in the Cold Open. His longest appearance came in “Cast List 2,” a sequel to a famously cut-for-time sketch from his previous hosting gig in 2019. The sequel ended up being the 11th-longest live sketch of the previous 1,000, at 07:37.
Paul McCartney – 14:36 (23.1%)
The Liverpool Legend joined the Five-Timers Club for musical guests and performed three songs. The first, “Days We Left Behind,” is from his upcoming 20th album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. He performed “Band on the Run” after “Update,” from the 1973 Wings album of the same name. (He’d previously performed the song in the 2010 Christmas episode hosted by Paul Rudd.) After Goodnights, Sir Paul performed “Coming Up” from 1980’s McCartney II. He joins Jack White as the season’s only musical guest to appear twice outside of the performances—in Ferrell’s monologue, and as a mechanic with Marcello Hernandez. McCartney had the most screen time for a non-double duty musical guest since Justin Timberlake (16:31) in Dakota Johnson’s 2024 episode.
Chad Smith – 11:12 (17.7%)
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ dummer since 1988 had the most surprising cameo of the season, arriving at home base in place of our host, as a Will Ferrell lookalike. He also played in McCartney’s band, drumming for all three performances. Smith guested with Elton John and Brandi Carlile in Jack Black’s episode last season.
Ashley Padilla – 09:23 (14.9%)
Padilla finished her historic SNL season strong, leading the cast for a fifth episode. She in turn claimed the Season 51 screen time crown, despite a late challenge from last season’s title holder, Colin Jost. As a featured player, Padilla hit five minutes or more in fifteen episodes, and led the cast in every major category. She made three appearances in the finale with Will Ferrell, as well as reprised Kristi Noem in the Cold Open. As far as screen time average goes, Padilla had the best SNL season since Kenan Thompson in Season 44.
Jeremy Culhane – 09:20 (14.8%)
Culhane made it count in the finale, passing one hour of season screen time and nabbing the only “Update” segment, to reprise his character, Mr. On Blast, from January’s Teyana Taylor episode. In the finale, which featured only eight non-musical segments, Culhane smashed his career best (06:08, Glen Powell) thanks to the “Update” hit, his return as JD Vance in the Cold Open, a role in “Midnight Matinee,” and making his longest career appearance in “Cast List 2.”
Colin Jost – 09:05 (14.4%)
Jost failed to retain his screen time title, and the Cold Open’s fleeting reprisal of Pete Hegseth might have made all the difference. He averaged three minutes per appearance in the previous Cold Opens, but had a reduced role of about a minute in his tenth Hegseth appearance of the season. Capping it all off with a 13th “Weekend Update Joke Swap” with Michael Che, Season 51 is officially Jost’s best statistical season, as he averaged 07:22 per episode in his 14th year. If he returns for Season 52, the premiere will be his 250th episode.
James Austin Johnson – 07:14 (11.5%)
Johnson returned as Donald Trump in the Cold Open after three episodes off. His appearance with host Will Ferrell (as the late Jeffrey Epstein) marked his 53rd appearance as Trump, passing Alec Baldwin’s record of 52 (2016-2020). He tied Darrell Hammond’s Season 23 record (as Bill Clinton) for playing an incumbent president 14 times in a single season. Season 52’s premiere will be his 100th episode.
Mikey Day – 06:45 (10.7%)
For Day, who moved from the writers’ room to the cast in Season 42, the finale marked his 200th episode. He coupled twice with Ashley Padilla as a foil to host Ferrell in the live sketches “Post Op” and “Mechanic.” He also reprised his role as Casper in the sequel to the infamous cut-for-time sketch, “Cast List.”
Michael Che – 06:36 (10.5%)
Despite not having a guest on his side of the “Weekend Update” desk, Che hit a season peak in the 51 finale thanks to the return of his and Jost’s joke swap. Che wrapped up his 12th season as the fifth-longest tenured SNL cast member in history (242 episodes).
Veronika Slowikowska – 05:31 (8.7%)
Slowikowska cemented herself as the statistical Rookie of the Year, leading Season 51’s freshman class of five in screen time (01:21:53). She appeared twice with Ferrell, first in the ensemble “Cast List 2” and second as Dismukes’ girlfriend in “The Nudemans.” She averaged 04:06 per episode this season, the best rookie rate over the last 10 seasons— ahead of James Austin Johnson’s 03:17 in Season 47.
Andrew Dismukes – 05:20 (8.4%)
Dismukes finished strong with a lead in the season’s final sketch, as the confused boyfriend meeting his girlfriend’s family in “The Nudemans.” He neared his average of 05:31 from the first half of the season, but dropped over a minute from Season 50. In the finale he also appeared as a Gandalf lookalike in “Bobbin’s Sacrifice,” and one half of a pair of theater geeks with James Austin Johnson. His strongest episode of Season 51 came in November with Miles Teller.
Marcello Hernández – 04:56 (7.8%)
Hernández finished off an exceptional spring run, averaging nine minutes per episode dating back to Harry Styles’ double-duty outing. He had 03:15 in “Mechanic” (playing coworker to both host Ferrell and musical guest McCartney), and he was one of just six cast members to make more than two appearances (with Padilla, Culhane, Johnson, Day, and Dismukes).
Ben Marshall – 04:56 (7.8%)
Marshall had his third-best episode the season, and trumped his longest career appearance (04:06, set last week with “Godzilla Movie) with “Cast List” (04:25). He also appeared in the sixth “Midnight Matinee,” “Bobbin’s Sacrifice.” He is now five appearances shy of 100, in an SNL career dating back to 2021.
Chloe Fineman – 04:41 (7.4%)
Despite an incredible start to Season 51, Fineman fell one second short of tying her career best average (05:03, in Season 48). She averaged 06:36 in the first six shows, and 04:04 in the final six. She made two consecutive appearances early in the finale, first as an elf in “Bobbin’s Sacrifice,” then as a hopeful theater kid in “Cast List 2.”
Jane Wickline – 04:07 (6.5%)
Wickline wrapped her sophomore season five minutes short of hitting two hours of career screen time. If it weren’t for Season 50 classmate Padilla, she’d easily be SNL’s most improved player, going from 02:24 per episode in her rookie season to 03:21 this year. She made one finale appearance, where in “Cast List 2” she dreaded being cast as a tree for a sixth straight year.
Tommy Brennan – 03:09 (5.0%)
Brennan ended his rookie year at SNL with a bang (or a, ahem, squeeze) in “Cast List 2,” where Molly Shannon’s choir director employed unorthodox tactics to get him to sing his highest note possible. He fell short of an hour of screen time on the season, hitting three minutes or more in eight episodes, but he appeared at least once in all 20.
Sarah Sherman – 02:34 (4.1%)
Sherman made an appearance in the season’s final live sketch, “The Nudemans,” as Ferrell’s equally bizarrely dressed wife. She appeared briefly in “Cast List 2” before being wheeled off by Kenan Thompson. Sherman had an “Update” appearance as herself, discussing her “smullet,” that was cut for time and appeared on SNL’s YouTube page.
Molly Shannon – 01:18 (2.1%)
A cast member from 1995-2001, Shannon has since returned to host twice (in 2007 and 2023). Teaming up with Ferrell, her castmate of six seasons, she played Ms. Peebles, the choir director in “Cast List 2,” marking her fifth cameo in an SNL episode since her tenure ended.
Kam Patterson – 01:11 (1.9%)
Patterson finished just four seconds shy of his total from last week’s Matt Damon episode, lowering his rookie average to 02:11. He appeared only with Hernández as the jocks fulfilling their elective credit in “Cast List 2.” His best episode of the season (07:32) came with Colman Domingo in April.
Aziz Ansari – 00:33 (0.9%)
For the third consecutive week, the Season 42 host played FBI Director Kash Patel, who in the future, Ferrell’s Epstein told Trump, hosts a podcast with Jost’s Pete Hegseth. Through the final three episodes of Season 51, Ansari totaled 06:41 as Patel.
Kenan Thompson – 00:25 (0.7%)
In the finale of his record-extending 23rd season, Thompson appeared only once, speaking just five words, in “Cast List 2.” His season average in turn dropped to 04:22, making Season 51 his least-busy one in at least a decade.
