The 20 celebrities who hosted Saturday Night Live during its 49th season collectively logged seven hours and 21 minutes of screen time, averaging out to 22 minutes apiece. A quarter of them appeared in more than 40% of their respective episodes, while others barely cracked 25%. Scroll down to see how each stacked up to one another.
Note that the screen times listed here for Bad Bunny and Dua Lipa, who each pulled double duty this season as both host and musical guest, do not include their musical performances. Also not factored into this ranking are cameos Season 49 hosts made in episodes they did not host. (We’ll be ranking screen time tallies for musical performances and cameos separately, later this week.)
Our screen time data is calculated using a method that prioritizes face time, meaning that any contiguous (off-screen but in-scene) moments and practically all partial body appearances do not count. Screen time in opening credits, bumpers and goodnights are not included, nor do those portions factor into our assessment of each episode’s running time.
Shane Gillis – 27:11 / 42.74%
Four and a half years after being fired from the SNL cast within a week of being hired, Gillis received a rather warm welcome as first-time host. After kicking off his February 24 stint with an eight-minute monologue, the comedian appeared in eight sketches, with his most prominent role being that of Forrest Gump’s former high school bully in “Gump.”
Pete Davidson – 26:40 / 43.22%
Davidson made his SNL hosting debut almost 17 months after he ended his eight-season tenure as a cast member. He was initially booked to host Season 48’s 19th episode, which was canceled due to the 2023 WGA strike. Instead, he headlined the October 14 premiere with Ice Spice replacing as his accompanying musical guest.
Jake Gyllenhaal – 26:33 / 41.64%
Gyllenhaal closed out the season after having hosted in 2007 and 2022 and making cameos in three additional episodes. Once he showed off his singing voice in both his monologue and the live sketch “Beautiful Girls,” he gave his longest performance of the night as a frustrated Southwest customer in “Canceling a Flight.”
Ramy Youssef – 26:20 / 41.77%
Youssef made his SNL hosting debut on March 30, one week after the release of his second HBO stand-up special, More Feelings. After delivering the season’s second longest monologue (8:12), he took part in nine segments, with his lengthiest sketch performance being as perpetually disappointed father Hahmed Ahmed Mahmoud in “Immigrant Dad Talk Show.”
Ryan Gosling – 26:08 / 40.92%
Gosling’s third SNL hosting gig differed from his previous two (in 2015 and 2017) in that he did not visit “Weekend Update” but did participate in the cold open. His reprisal of the role of alien abductee Todd and viral portrayal of Beavis look-alike Dean were immediately preceded by his 36-second cameo as himself in the April 6 episode hosted by Wiig.
Kate McKinnon – 26:03 / 39.54%
Former repertory player McKinnon outpaced all seven of this season’s other female hosts by a margin of over four minutes. After leaving the cast in May 2022, she was brought back to headline the December 16 show, during which she revived “Whiskers R We” character Barbara DeBrew and played seven new ones.
Timothée Chalamet – 22:56 / 36.04%
Chalamet hosted SNL for the second time on November 11, one month prior to the release of his film Wonka. In addition to impersonating Troye Sivan and Martin Scorsese, he once again played the roles of tiny horse owner Ernest and delusional TikTok rapper SmokeCheddaDaAssGetta.
Josh Brolin – 22:40 / 35.85%
Brolin, who previously hosted in 2008 and 2012, came quite close to matching fellow Dune actor Chalamet’s Season 49 screen time on March 9. His episode is notable for having included the season’s briefest “Weekend Update” segment, which lasted for just six minutes and 36 seconds (five and a half minutes below the 20-episode average).
Adam Driver – 21:59 / 36.10%
Driver became a four-time host on December 9 after having appeared on the show in January 2020. Notably, two cut-for-time live sketches “Actor’s Journey” and “Court Case” (which had a combined running time of 11:38) were later released online.
Sydney Sweeney – 21:56 / 34.85%
At 26, Sweeney was this season’s youngest host by a margin of less than seven weeks. After opening the March 2 episode with one of the season’s three shortest monologues (3:30), the Euphoria actress was seen in six live and three pretaped sketches, including Please Don’t Destroy’s “Gone Too Soon.”
Nate Bargatze – 21:26 / 34.52%
Bargatze hosted SNL for the first time on October 28, nearly nine months after releasing his Prime Video comedy special, Hello World. At nine minutes and 24 seconds, his monologue was the season’s longest, exceeding the average by just over four minutes.
Maya Rudolph – 21:21 / 33.50%
Since leaving the SNL cast in 2007, Rudolph has returned to the show 27 times. Her May 11 hosting gig (following earlier ones in 2012 and 2021) consisted of a high-energy musical monologue and several memorable sketch roles, including Hot Ones interviewee Beyoncé and gassy coffee commercial actress Dawn Farraway.
Kristen Wiig – 20:56 / 33.47%
Wiig’s latest hosting stint made her the 25th (and seventh female) member of the Five-Timers Club. Her nearly seven-minute monologue featured nine surprise guests, including her former cast mates Fred Armisen and Will Forte and fellow five-timer Paul Rudd. Later, she reviced classic “Weekend Update” character Aunt Linda for the first time since 2010.
Bad Bunny – 20:49 / 33.27%
After serving as a musical guest in Season 46, Bad Bunny became the first man in almost a year to pull double duty as both host and musical guest. If you add in his seven-minute and 18-second musical performances, he was technically seen on screen more than any of this season’s male hosts, but McKinnon (30:50, if you incude her April cameo) still beat him overall.
Emma Stone – 20:45 / 33.32%
Season 49’s first of two Five-Timers Club inductees last hosted the show in April 2019. She mostly played new characters in the December 2 episode, the only exception being pin-up model Krissy Knox in “Posters III,” with Marcello Hernandez replacing Davidson as her adolescent admirer.
Dakota Johnson – 19:23 / 29.23%
Johnson was seen in all seven post-monologue sketches on January 27, but with the cold open, musical performances and “Weekend Update” collectively taking up 43% of the running time, her screen time took a hit.
Ayo Edebiri – 18:34 / 31.04%
Like Davidson and Gosling, Edebiri broke from tradition by appearing in her episode’s cold open, which happened to be the longest of the season at seven minutes and 11 seconds. Before appearing in six live and two pretaped sketches on February 3, she notably exchanged dialogue with failed presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who showed up as herself for 37 seconds.
Jason Momoa – 17:50 / 28.14%
Momoa returned to SNL on November 18 after having made his hosting debut in December 2018. Although his episode featured a Please Don’t Destroy video, he (like Bargatze and unlike eight other Season 49 hosts) did not appear in it. His two-minute and 41-second monologue was also the shortest of the season, falling over two and a half minutes below average.
Jacob Elordi – 16:26 / 26.45%
This season’s youngest male host welcomed viewers back on January 20 after the show’s usual month-long winter break. His screen time was partially impacted by the fact that “Pimp My Ride,” the Please Don’t Destroy video in which he appeared for over one minute, was cut for time.
Dua Lipa – 15:55 / 25.02%
Lipa acted as both host and musical guest on May 4 after having served in the latter capacity in 2018 and 2020. Although her musical performances gave her seven minutes of overall screen time not included here, she was relatively underutilized in sketches, and her monologue tied with Sweeney’s for the second shortest of the season.
