Gladiator II star Paul Mescal made his Saturday Night Live debut this week alongside first-time musical guest Shaboozey, with the Irish actor’s nearly 23 minutes of screen time amounting to over 35% of the episode’s total running time.
Scroll down to see how Mescal stacked up against each of the show’s named performers, including three unannounced guests.
Note: Our screen time calculation method has been developed in partnership with longtime SNL statistician Mike Murray, host of the Saturday Night Network’s weekly By The Numbers podcast. We prioritize face time, meaning that any contiguous (off-screen but in-scene) moments and practically all partial body appearances do not count. Screen time in the opening credits, bumpers, goodnights and cut-for-time sketches are not included, nor do those portions factor into our assessment of the episode’s total running time.
Paul Mescal – 22:39 / 35.71%
Mescal’s screen time was spread over 11 segments, with his longest sketch performance (4:17) being “Italian Restaurant Commercial.” He played fictional characters in each of his sketches except “Paul Mescal Is Daddy” and “A Complete Unknown Red Carpet,” in which portrayed himself and Bono.
Heidi Gardner – 12:56 / 20.39%
Not only did Heidi Gardner come in first among her peers this week, but she achieved the highest single-episode screen time for an SNL cast member since Bowen Yang racked up 13 minutes and 32 seconds on November 18, 2023. Gardner appeared in a total of five segments, including “Weekend Update” as “a mom whose son just got famous.”
Andrew Dismukes – 10:09 / 16.00%
Until this week, Andrew Dismukes had not hit the 10-minute mark in a single episode since April 8, 2023. He was heavily utilized in all of December 7’s final four sketches, one of which (“Brilliant Lawyer”) featured his longest on-screen performance of the season to date (4:17).
Marcello Hernandez – 7:50 / 12.35%
Marcello Hernandez follows Yang as the second cast member to have logged over seven minutes of screen time in two consecutive Season 50 episodes. The bulk of his time this week was spent playing Juan Soto in the cold open and a fictional NFL player on “Weekend Update.”
Sarah Sherman – 7:00 / 11.04%
Though she logged 34% less screen time this week than she did in the Charli XCX-hosted most recent episode, Sarah Sherman still ranks as the female performer with the most Season 50 screen time. Season-to-date, she has a one-minute lead over Gardner, who was nearly seven minutes behind her before this week.
Shaboozey – 6:52 / 10.83%
After Mk.gee on November 9, Shaboozey is the second Season 50 musical guest to not rank among his episode’s five most prominent performers. In his SNL debut, the Grammy nominee performed his newest single, “Good News,” and his Billboard #1 hit, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”.
Dana Carvey – 6:44 / 10.61%
Former cast member Dana Carvey has yet to break his streak of appearing in every one of this season’s cold opens. This week’s episode began with a revival of his classic Church Lady character, whom he last played on the show in November 2016.
Bowen Yang – 6:04 / 9.56%
This week, Yang added 106 seconds to his lead as this season’s most prominent cast member. In second place by a margin of over four minutes is Colin Jost, who Yang pulled ahead of on November 9.
James Austin Johnson – 5:47 / 9.12%
This was the fourth consecutive episode in which James Austin Johnson appeared for more than five minutes and the second this season in which he did not portray Donald Trump. Over 46% of his time this week was spent performing his Bob Dylan impression in “A Complete Unknown Red Carpet.”
Ashley Padilla – 5:05 / 8.01%
In addition to outpacing both of her fellow featured players for the third week in a row, Ashley Padilla has pulled back ahead of Emil Wakim as this season’s most heavily utilized newcomer. Her four-minute and 29-second “Italian Restaurant Commercial” performance this week was her longest in a single sketch so far.
Michael Che – 4:45 / 7.49%
This wasn’t Michael Che’s strongest week of the season in terms of actual screen time, but he did edge out his co-anchor Colin Jost by 27 seconds. He’s still 16 minutes and 40 seconds behind Jost in cumulative Season 50 screen time.
Emil Wakim – 4:22 / 6.88%
Wakim’s December 7 screen time is his highest in a single episode so far. In between his ensemble roles in the cold open and “Pirates,” he appeared for about three and a half minutes as Mescal’s character’s reactionary father in “Earring.”
Mikey Day – 4:21 / 6.86%
Mikey Day, who was absent from last week’s show, took part in three of this episode’s sketches. He racked up almost two minutes of screen time in “Pirates,” which featured a whopping 12 cast members.
Ego Nwodim – 4:19 / 6.81%
Due to their large screen time difference this week, Ego Nwodim has again traded places with Gardner on this season’s list of most prominent female players. The only two December 7 sketches in which Nwodim took part (each for at least two minutes) were “Pirates” and “Spotify Wrapped.”
Colin Jost – 4:18 / 6.78%
This week marked the end of a ten-episode streak of Jost outpacing Che’s screen time. This instance of Che placing higher than Jost differs from the last on April 13 in that Che finished first among the show’s entire cast that week.
Chloe Fineman – 4:06 / 6.46%
Chloe Fineman’s December 7 screen time was fairly evenly split between two sketches. After playing a disappointed all-male revue attendee in “Pirates,” she helped close out the show with a reprisal of her Timothee Chalamet impression in “A Complete Unknown Red Carpet.”
Devon Walker – 1:54 / 3.00%
Having now landed under two minutes five times since September 28, Devon Walker retains his position as Season 50’s least prominent repertory player. He also stands as the only male cast member who has yet to appear in at least three minutes of a single sketch this season.
David Spade – 1:45 / 2.76%
David Spade’s cold open portrayal of Hunter Biden constituted his first physical SNL appearance since hosting the show in March 2005. He is the sixth former cast member to make at least one cameo this season, after Carvey, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney.
Martin Herlihy – 1:42 / 2.68%
After delivering performances of practically equal length in the latest two Please Don’t Destroy sketches, Martin Herlihy currently boasts more Season 50 screen time than either of his fellow group members.
John Higgins – 1:30 / 2.36%
“Paul Mescal Is Daddy” followed October 19’s “Skydiving” as only the second Please Don’t Destroy short to air this season. It is also one of the group’s longest SNL shorts overall, coming just seven seconds short of surpassing the record held by Season 47’s “Three Sad Virgins” (4:00).
Ben Marshall – 1:30 / 2.36%
All three Please Don’t Destroy members were outpaced in “Paul Mescal Is Daddy” by Mescal himself, whose screen time in the short was two minutes and 14 seconds.
Jane Wickline – 1:25 / 2.23%
Although Jane Wickline has now fallen behind Padilla and Wakim three times in a row, this was the second consecutive episode in which all three of the show’s new featured players appeared for more than 80 seconds apiece. Wickline remains at the very bottom of this season’s cast member screen time ranking by a one-minute margin.
Kenan Thompson – 1:24 / 2.21%
Along with Day, Fineman, Walker, and Michael Longfellow, Kenan Thompson is one of only five repertory players who have each yet to amass 30 minutes of screen time this season. At this point in Season 49, Thompson was already up to 39 minutes and 23 seconds.
Michael Longfellow – 1:12 / 1.89%
Although he was this week’s least utilized cast member and has yet to crack 80 seconds since November 9, Longfellow still comfortably outranks Walker and every featured player when it comes to cumulative Season 50 screen time. He’s currently just six seconds away from reaching a season total of 20 minutes.
Trisha Paytas – 0:33 / 0.87%
YouTuber Trisha Paytas made her SNL debut alongside Yang in this week’s penultimate sketch, “Spotify Wrapped.” At this point in the current season, hers is the shortest cameo in a live sketch.
Season 50 of SNL continues next week with host Chris Rock and musical guest Gracie Abrams.
Can’t get enough SNL stats? Join us for an in-depth discussion of this week’s screen time, power rankings, and more on the Saturday Night Network’s By The Numbers podcast, streaming live Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET, right here on LateNighter.
why are we counting the minutes cast members are on screen, what are we trying to prove with this