Making his Saturday Night Live debut this weekend as the host of the show’s Mother’s Day episode (with his own mom in tow), Walton Goggins was among this year’s least utilized hosts–at least as measured by screen time, falling almost five minutes below the current Season 50 host average.
Scroll down to see how Goggins stacked up against each of the show’s named performers, including musical guests Arcade Fire and surprise guests Cecily Strong and Sam Rockwell.
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.
Walton Goggins – 16:54 / 27.45%
After delivering the shortest monologue for a male host this season (3:32), Goggins performed in six sketches, logging between one and four minutes of screen time in each. His most prominent character was salacious waiter Albie in “Mother’s Day Brunch.”
Colin Jost – 11:00 / 17.87%
Including his portrayal of Pete Hegseth in this week’s cold open, Colin Jost has logged over three minutes of Season 50 screen time outside of “Weekend Update.” This was his first time surpassing 10 minutes screen time in a single episode since the Season 48 finale.
Arcade Fire – 10:05 / 16.38%
Arcade Fire made their seventh SNL appearance one day after the release of their seventh album, Pink Elephant. They now boast more screen time than every preceding Season 50 musical act, with their rendition of “Year of the Snake” being this season’s longest musical performance to date by a half-minute margin.
Heidi Gardner – 9:05 / 14.75%
Heidi Gardner has now outpaced every other female cast member in five Season 50 episodes, all of which were hosted by men. This was her second strongest week of the season (after December 7), with nearly 75% of her time split between “Mother’s Day Brunch” and “Weekend Update.”
James Austin Johnson – 6:39 / 10.80%
In addition to playing physical parts in “Trump Mother’s Day Cold Open” and “The Second Amendment,” James Austin Johnson logged 14 combined seconds of voice acting in “Service Dogs” and “Boss’s Bathroom.”
Mikey Day – 5:26 / 8.83%
This week saw Mikey Day supplant Ego Nwodim as this season’s fifth most heavily utilized cast member. His nearly five and a half minutes of screen time were spread over three segments, including “Weekend Update” where he played A Guy Who Just Walked Into a Spiderweb.
Sarah Sherman – 5:10 / 8.39%
With “Boss’s Bathroom,” Sarah Sherman extended her streak of being the sole consistent performer in every one of Dan Bulla’s “Midnight Matinee” sketches. Her combined screen time in those four pretapes comes out to just under two minutes, amounting to less than 2% of her current Season 50 total.
Marcello Hernandez – 4:50 / 7.85%
Marcello Hernandez’s The Movie Guy now stands apart from all other “Weekend Update” characters in having appeared in multiple Season 50 episodes. Compared with his debut on March 1, his appearance this week was about 30 seconds longer.
Bowen Yang – 4:28 / 7.26%
Bowen Yang experienced a slight screen time increase in this episode compared to last week, appearing in a total of four sketches, including the cold open. He logged over 61% of his time this week as an inept waiter in “The Deathly Diner.”
Michael Che – 4:10 / 6.77%
Clocking in at almost 18 minutes, this week’s “Weekend Update” segment stands as the longest of the season by over 100 seconds. The two anchors’ five-minute screen time difference this week is their largest since May 4, 2024 and raises their Season 50 gap average by a full 10 seconds.
Andrew Dismukes – 3:45 / 6.09%
Andrew Dismukes was seen for less than 90 seconds apiece in three May 10 sketches, all of which featured four or fewer cast members. He gave his longest performance of the night in “Boss’s Bathroom,” his third “Midnight Matinee” short after “My Best Friend’s House” (October 12) and “Beppo” (November 2).
Ashley Padilla – 3:33 / 5.77%
Since joining the cast at the start of this season, Ashley Padilla has outpaced both of her fellow new hires in nine episodes. Though she nearly lost her top position on this season’s cumulative featured player screen time list last week, she now boasts a comfortable lead of almost four minutes.
Jane Wickline – 3:21 / 5.44%
Before appearing in “Service Dogs,” Jane Wickline was given a chance to really shine as the most prominent performer in the musical pretape “Tiny Baby Shoe.” Having once ranked as this season’s least utilized cast member, she now holds the second-to-last position by a margin of more than six minutes.
Cecily Strong – 3:18 / 5.36%
SNL alum Strong returned to a regular episode of the show for the first time in over two years to play Jeanine Pirro during this week’s cold open. She is the fourth female (and 14th overall) former cast member to show up at least once this season, after Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Kristen Wiig.
Ego Nwodim – 3:10 / 5.14%
Nwodim logged the entirety of her May 10 screen time during the night’s final live sketch, “The Deathly Diner.” The last time she appeared in just one segment was October 5, when she played one of several generally silent models in “Sabado Gigante.”
Michael Longfellow – 1:49 / 2.95%
This was the 11th Season 50 episode in which Michael Longfellow appeared for less than two minutes. His live performances in “The Second Amendment” and “Service Dogs” were each under one minute long.
Kenan Thompson – 1:27 / 2.36%
Kenan Thompson’s screen time this week greatly differs from last week, when he finished first among his castmates with a whopping 11 minutes. This time, he only had small parts in the cold open, “Tiny Baby Shoe,” and “The Deathly Diner.”
Janet Long – 0:51 / 1.38%
At this point, Goggins’s mother is the only non-celebrity to have a speaking part in a Season 50 monologue segment. After being introduced by her son, she joined him on stage for a 45-second dance routine.
Sam Rockwell – 0:32 / 0.87%
Sam Rockwell’s second-ever SNL appearance came more than seven years after he hosted the 10th episode of the 43rd season. He now belongs to a small group of performers who have made pretaped cameos this season, joining the likes of Joe Jonas and Scarlett Johansson.
Emil Wakim – 0:10 / 0.27%
Emil Wakim made his only appearance this week as a silent theatergoer in “Service Dogs.” Though he was this episode’s most underutilized featured player, he technically finished ahead of repertory players Chloe Fineman and Devon Walker, both of whom were completely absent from each of this week’s 11 segments.
SNL’s 50th season finale airs this coming weekend with host Scarlett Johansson and musical guest Bad Bunny.
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.
