Saturday Night Live returned for its 50th season premiere this weekend with host Jean Smart, fresh off her third Primetime Emmy win for Hacks less than two weeks ago. The first-time host was joined by rookie musical guest Jelly Roll for an episode that marked the debuts of three new featured players in the wake of three off-season cast departures.
Scroll down to see how Smart stacked up against each of the show’s named performers, including Maya Rudolph and four other special 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.
Jean Smart – 12:18 / 19.51%
Although she outpaced every other performer in her episode, Smart’s screen time is rather low for an SNL host considering that all of her Season 49 predecessors managed to at least hit the 16-minute mark. It didn’t help that she was absent from the cold open and “Weekend Update,” which collectively accounted for 45% of the show’s total running time. Nearly two-thirds of her screen time was split between two segments: her monologue and the “Textbook Writer” sketch.
Maya Rudolph – 9:58 / 15.81%
Rudolph’s participation in this episode came as no surprise to most SNL fans after it was revealed over the summer that she would be returning this fall as the show’s Kamala Harris. Her 28th appearance on the show since leaving the main cast 17 years ago saw her play the Vice President for the first time since March 2021.
Bowen Yang – 9:41 / 15.36%
Bowen Yang was heavy utilized in the season premiere appearing in a total of five live segments, including the cold open as vice presidential candidate JD Vance and “Weekend Update” as viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng.
Colin Jost – 7:12 / 11.42%
Colin Jost kicked off his record 12th season as a “Weekend Update” anchor by appearing in over 46% of the September 28 segment. His nearly three-minute advantage over his co-anchor, Michael Che, is on par with their Season 49 gap average which was derived from Jost amassing more time than Che in 16 out of 20 episodes.
Jelly Roll – 6:46 / 10.74%
Jelly Roll’s SNL debut consisted of soulful performances of his singles “Liar” and “Winning Streak,” the latter of which has not yet been released. The ubiquitous Southern hip hop artist’s 10th studio album, Beautifully Broken, is due out on October 11, which happens to be the 49th anniversary of SNL’s very first episode.
Devon Walker – 4:54 / 7.77%
Along with Marcello Hernandez and Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker is one of three newly promoted repertory cast members who were first introduced in Season 48 as featured players. After reviving his impersonation of NFL legend Michael Strahan in “$100,000 Pyramid,” he racked up close to three minutes of screen time as disgraced NYC mayor Eric Adams on “Weekend Update.”
Michael Che – 4:35 / 7.27%
Although Jost and Che co-anchored this week’s 15-minute “Weekend Update” segment, Che was seen in 17% less of it than Jost. Their time difference can largely be attributed to the fact that Jost’s one-on-one interaction with Yang lasted over a minute longer than that of Che and Walker.
Ego Nwodim – 3:35 / 5.68%
This week’s most prominent female cast member would have also been the last one to make an appearance in this episode if not for Sarah Sherman, who only took part in the night’s final two sketches. Before joining Sherman in “Charli XCX Talk Show” and “Real Housewives of Santa Fe Dinner,” Ego Nwodim kicked off her seventh season on the show by participating in “Textbook Writer.”
Andrew Dismukes – 2:49 / 4.47%
This was the second time over the last three years that Andrew Dismukes has been the season’s first series regular to appear on screen. Having previously opened the Season 48 premiere alongside host Miles Teller (as Eli and Peyton Manning), he kicked off this year’s anniversary season with an impression of ABC News anchor David Muir.
Chloe Fineman – 2:49 / 4.47%
Chloe Fineman appeared in one pretape and four live sketches this week, each for less than 44 seconds. The biggest and smallest chunks of her time were respectively spent impersonating Kaitlan Collins in “Charli XCX Talk Show” (25%) and Vivian Vance in “I Love Lucy” (6%).
Heidi Gardner – 2:42 / 4.28%
Heidi Gardner has stood as SNL’s longest-serving female cast member since Cecily Strong ended her 11-season stint in December 2022. Gardner began her eighth season playing two new characters: “Spirit Halloween” community liaison Lauren and “Real Housewives of Santa Fe” star Jill.
Kenan Thompson – 2:27 / 3.89%
Kenan Thompson, who is now 22 seasons into his SNL tenure, landed in the middle of this episode’s screen time rankings after clocking in above every other cast member in the Season 49 opener. He showed up just twice in this case, playing embattled gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson in “$100,000 Pyramid” and a Scholastic employee in “Textbook Writer.”
Andy Samberg – 2:15 / 3.57%
More than six years after he was last seen on SNL, former cast member Andy Samberg made an unannounced cold open appearance as the vice president’s spouse, Doug Emhoff. He has now returned to the show seven times since stepping down after seven seasons, the first three of which overlapped with Rudolph’s own regular tenure on the show.
Dana Carvey – 2:12 / 3.49%
Dana Carvey’s surprise cold open performance as Joe Biden occurred nearly eight years after he visited the “Weekend Update” desk in character as the Church Lady to discuss then-presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Biden is the fourth commander in chief that the former cast member has portrayed on SNL, after Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Marcello Hernandez – 2:07 / 3.36%
Hernandez, whose Season 49 screen time total was nearly 28 minutes greater than Devon Walker’s, already has some catching up to do if he hopes to outpace his fellow former featured player again this season. Like Walker, he showed up twice during this episode as parodic versions of real people: Bad Bunny in “$100,000 Pyramid” and Desi Arnaz in “I Love Lucy.”
James Austin Johnson – 1:57 / 3.09%
Before briefly portraying William Frawley in the “I Love Lucy” sketch, Johnson amassed the bulk of his premiere screen time as GOP candidate Trump in the cold open. He has now played the former president on a semi-regular basis for almost three years, with his Season 49 screen time having been bolstered by seven such performances.
Sarah Sherman – 1:52 / 2.96%
Despite not making a single appearance until this episode’s final 15 minutes, Sherman ended up with a relatively decent amount of screen time across her two segments. Her portrayal of Troye Sivan in “Charli XCX Talk Show” occurred nearly one year after she starred in a sketch about a woman trying to rid herself of a sleep demon version of the Australian singer (who was then played by Timothée Chalamet).
Jim Gaffigan – 1:32 / 2.43%
After much speculation, prolific stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan emerged as the chosen one to play vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz opposite Rudolph’s Harris. This was the second SNL performance of his career, coming 28 years after his portrayal of an unnamed murderer in a 35-second “Fuzzy Memories” sketch.
Mikey Day – 1:02 / 1.64%
Not counting the “Weekend Update” anchors, Mikey Day directly follows Thompson on the list of longest-serving current SNL cast members. He began his ninth season racking up just over a minute of screen time as a creepy cashier in “Spirit Halloween” and a Scholastic employee in “Textbook Writer.”
Ashley Padilla – 0:58 / 1.53%
Ashley Padilla emerged as this episode’s most prominent featured player as she joined Yang, Nwodim and Fineman as one of only four cast members to physically appear in three or more sketches. After playing small roles in “Spirit Halloween” and “Textbook Writer,” she added more than half a minute to her total as one of the six stars of “Real Housewives of Santa Fe.”
Michael Longfellow – 0:23 / 0.61%
Of the 14 current repertory cast members, Longfellow is the only one who did not appear in any of this episode’s live segments. He was only seen in the pretaped “Spirit Halloween” sketch as a brand ambassador who spoke less than 50 words.
Jane Wickline – 0:13 / 0.34%
Cast newcomer Jane Wickline is the only one of this episode’s named performers who appeared with no lines of dialogue. The 25-year-old TikTok creator was seen in the first half of “Spirit Halloween” as a dejected woman whose run-down community catches the titular company’s attention.
Emil Wakim – 0:11 / 0.29%
Although he wasn’t given much to do in his first episode, Emil Wakim stands apart from the show’s other new featured players in that he got the chance to debut an impression. After appearing for three seconds as Turkish Olympian Yusuf Dikec at the end of “$100,000 Pyramid,” he nearly quadrupled his time with a silent role in “Spirit Halloween.”
Hannah Einbinder – 0:05 / 0.13%
Given that her mother, Laraine Newman, was an original SNL cast member, Hannah Einbinder’s cameo in this landmark episode was doubly appropriate. She and her Hacks co-star’s lead-in to Jelly Roll’s “Liar” performance made them the first duo to introduce an SNL music segment since December 2023 host Kate McKinnon shared the duty with her Barbie director, Greta Gerwig.
Season 50 of SNL continues next week with host Nate Bargatze and musical guest Coldplay.
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.
