SNL S50 E4: Who Got the Most (and Least) Screen Time?

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Michael Keaton became a four-time Saturday Night Live host this week, making him the rare star to host SNL over four decades. Compared to his most recent hosting gig in 2015, his screen time in this episode was about six minutes shorter.

Scroll down to see how Keaton stacked up against each of the show’s named performers, including musical guest Billie Eilish and five 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.

Michael Keaton Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Michael Keaton – 15:49 / 25.16%

Keaton’s relatively limited screen time in this episode lowers the Season 50 host average by a full minute. Just like in 2015, he participated in eight out of 10 post-monologue segments, with the exceptions of “Weekend Update” and one pretaped sketch (“TikTok”).

Sarah Sherman Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Sarah Sherman – 9:32 / 15.16%

In addition to being the first woman with the highest cast member screen time in a Season 50 episode, Sarah Sherman has now surpassed Heidi Gardner as the season’s most prominent female regular. Over four minutes of her October 19 time derived from her second “Weekend Update” appearance in as many weeks (and first as herself since March 2023).

Mikey Day Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Mikey Day – 8:33 / 13.60%

Compared to last week, Mikey Day was by far the most improved cast member in terms of screen time this week. After appearing for two minutes in full Beetlejuice garb during Keaton’s monologue, he racked up over four and a half minutes as “Shop TV” host Rhett, who he also played in Seasons 47 and 49.

Billie Eilish Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Billie Eilish – 8:02 / 12.78%

Eilish’s fourth SNL musical guest stint saw the star perform live renditions of “Birds of a Feather” and “Wildflower” from her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. Although she amassed nearly five minutes of additional sketch time in her December 2023 episode, her only non-musical appearance in this case was a six-second cameo in “TikTok.”

Heidi Gardner Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Heidi Gardner – 7:38 / 12.14%

Gardner would have needed another 36 seconds of screen time in this episode to keep Sherman from surpassing her in this season’s to-date female cast member ranking. Over half of her October 19 time was spent playing “Shop TV” host Lindy, a character she originated last season as a replacement for Cecily Strong’s Dot from 2022.

Ego Nwodim Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Ego Nwodim – 7:24 / 11.77%

Although she fell short of several other cast members in screen time, Ego Nwodim stands with Keaton as one of only two performers to participate in at least five of the episode’s 12 segments. More than 86% of her time was split between the live sketches “Forbidden Romance” and “Uber Game Show.”

Colin Jost Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Colin Jost – 6:13 / 9.89%

Just like he did six times last season, Colin Jost led two separate guest interviews (with Sherman and Emil Wakim) during this week’s “Weekend Update” segment while his co-anchor, Michael Che, led none. Despite this, Jost ended up with his lowest proportional time of the season so far, only appearing in 42.29% of the nearly 15-minute segment.

Finneas Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Finneas – 5:53 / 9.36%

Finneas, who released his own sophomore album on October 4, has a perfect record when it comes to accompanying his sister during her SNL musical guest spots. The siblings share writing credit on almost every song they’ve performed on the show, with the exception of last season’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

Andrew Dismukes Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Andrew Dismukes – 5:30 / 8.75%

Despite only being seen in two of this episode’s sketches, Andrew Dismukes experienced a 12% screen time increase compared to last week. His “Forbidden Romance” and “Horror Choreographer” characters were the most prominent roles in those segments by at least 22 seconds each.

Maya Rudolph Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Maya Rudolph – 4:43 / 7.50%

Thanks to her appearances as Vice President Kamala Harris in the cold open and “TikTok,” Maya Rudolph now boasts more Season 50 screen time than any other performer. Before this episode aired, she was only outpaced by October hosts Nate Bargatze and Ariana Grande.

Bowen Yang Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Bowen Yang – 4:18 / 6.84%

Not counting the “Weekend Update” anchors, Bowen Yang was the last cast member to show up in this episode. While he has yet to relinquish his first place position in this season’s cast member screen time ranking, only 95 seconds now separate him from Jost, who was three and a half minutes behind him last week.

Emil Wakim Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Emil Wakim – 3:58 / 6.31%

New featured player Wakim was the only person seen in both of this episode’s pretaped sketches (“Skydiving” and “TikTok”), albeit for a combined total of just 30 seconds. He amassed 59% of his current cumulative Season 50 screen time during his “Weekend Update” debut.

Alec Baldwin Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Alec Baldwin – 3:15 / 5.17%

Baldwin, who costarred with Keaton in 1988’s Beetlejuice but had no involvement in its sequel, portrayed Fox News anchor Bret Baier in this week’s cold open. This marked his 74th SNL appearance overall and first since a 13-second cameo as himself on November 11, 2023.

Ashley Padilla Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Ashley Padilla – 2:43 / 4.32%

Featured player Ashley Padilla bounced back strongly after being benched for the entirety of last week’s episode. As of now, she has the lowest total screen time of any Season 50 cast member, with Wakim directly outpacing her by 81 seconds.

Chloe Fineman Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Chloe Fineman – 2:42 / 4.29%

Chloe Fineman stands apart from every other current female repertory player in that this episode did not feature her longest performance of Season 50 so far. Before taking part in the live sketches “Horror Choreographer” and “Tableside,” she appeared in “TikTok” as three different characters, including Call Her Daddy host Alexandra Cooper.

Michael Che Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Michael Che – 2:41 / 4.27%

After appearing in less than 19% of this week’s“Weekend Update” segment, Che has fallen from fourth to ninth place in this season’s cast screen time ranking. His and Jost’s Season 50 screen time gap average has risen from 2:13 to 2:33.

Kenan Thompson Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Kenan Thompson – 2:28 / 3.92%

Along with Che, Devon Walker and Michael Longfellow, Kenan Thompson remains one of four repertory players who has yet to appear in a single Season 50 episode for more than five minutes. Over two-thirds of his screen time in this case was spent playing Nwodim’s father in “Forbidden Romance.”

John Higgins Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

John Higgins – 1:58 / 3.13%

The comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy made their long-awaited on-screen return to SNL in the pretaped sketch “Skydiving.” This brings their total number of aired sketches to 29, with their 28th (“Explore Page”) having been included in the penultimate episode of Season 49.

James Austin Johnson Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

James Austin Johnson – 1:50 / 2.92%

James Austin Johnson spent all of his time in this episode portraying Donald Trump in the cold open and “TikTok.” At this point, he has played Trump for a total of five minutes and 37 seconds this season, while Rudolph has racked up 21 minutes and 50 seconds as Harris.

Martin Herlihy Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Martin Herlihy – 1:49 / 2.89%

Please Don’t Destroy member Martin Herlihy’s “Skydiving” performance was at least 29 seconds longer than any of his Season 49 performances. Prior to this week, he and his partners received writing credit on several Season 50 sketches, including “Mile High Burger Challenge” and “Charades with Mom.”

Andy Samberg Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Andy Samberg – 1:37 / 2.57%

For the first time this season, Andy Samberg did not appear in the cold open as Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Instead, the former cast member’s entire October 19 performance consisted of him joining Day in crashing Keaton’s monologue in a Beetlejuice costume.

Ben Marshall Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Ben Marshall – 1:12 / 1.91%

While most Please Don’t Destroy videos star the members as a trio of established friends, that only applied to Higgins and Herlihy in “Skydiving.” Ben Marshall was instead featured in the separate role of a skydiving instructor who makes the other two regret their decision to hire him.

Devon Walker Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Devon Walker – 1:01 / 1.62%

Devon Walker’s low screen time in this episode was still an improvement over last week, when he showed up for only nine seconds in the pretaped sketch “My Best Friend’s House.” This time, he took part in three sketches, with “Forbidden Romance” featuring him most prominently.

Marcello Hernandez Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Marcello Hernandez – 0:58 / 1.54%

Like Fineman, Marcello Hernandez played multiple roles in “TikTok,” which included a brief audio sample of his performance in the October 12 sketch “Bridesmaid Speech.” Before that, he was seen during the cold open as Trump town hall attendee Ramiro Gonzalez.

Dana Carvey Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Dana Carvey – 0:52 / 1.38%

Although they never shared the screen on October 19, Keaton and Dana Carvey have now appeared in two of the same SNL episodes, as the former’s second hosting gig occurred in 1992 while the latter was still a series regular. Like Rudolph and Johnson, Carvey portrayed President Joe Biden in both the cold open and “TikTok.”

Michael Longfellow Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Michael Longfellow – 0:12 / 0.32%

Michael Longfellow is now the first person to land at the bottom of the repertory cast member screen time list multiple times this season, having also done so on September 28. In this episode, he was never physically utilized on screen but rather participated solely via audio (“Shop TV”) and still photos (“TikTok”).

Jane Wickline Saturday Night Live season 50 episode 4

Jane Wickline – 0:05 / 0.13%

Featured player Jane Wickline’s shortest SNL performance to date involved her showing up in “TikTok” as one of the platform’s infamous NPC girls. In real life, Wickline has spent four years building an audience of over one million TikTok users.

Season 50 of SNL continues on November 2 with host John Mulaney and musical guest Chappell Roan.

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.

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