If you’re a regular LateNighter reader, you know we track the individual screen times of each of the show’s credited players on a weekly basis. (you can view an archive of our weekly screen time reports here.)
For each of this season’s 20 regular episodes, the show’s host appeared at the top of our rankings, but how do they rank each other? You’ve come to the right place.
All told, the 20 celebrities who hosted Saturday Night Live this season logged a combined seven hours and 15 minutes of screen time, or an average of about 22 minutes apiece. Three hosts beat the average by more than five minutes, while four fell short of the average by more than five minutes.
Those who simultaneously served as both host and musical guest this season are listed with their musical performances factored into their screen time totals. Not included are cameos that Season 50 hosts made in episodes they did not host.
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.
Lady Gaga – 30:26 / 48.00%
March 8 marked Lady Gaga’s second time pulling double duty on SNL (her first was in 2013). In this case, she spent nearly eight minutes performing two songs from Mayhem, without which she would have still ranked as this season’s most heavily utilized female host.
Shane Gillis – 27:22 / 43.50%
Shane Gillis hosted SNL for the second time on March 1, just over one year after he initially headlined the show. His screen time this year was just three-seconds lower than his 2024 hosting stint.
Dave Chappelle – 27:21 / 43.31%
Dave Chappelle kicked off SNL’s first 2025 episode with the longest monologue in the show’s entire history (clocking in at 16:49). Despite only appearing in three subsequent sketches, he set another record that night for longest single-sketch performance by a Season 50 host (4:58 in “Immigrant Dad Talk Show 2”).
Nate Bargatze – 25:42 / 40.87%
Chappelle narrowly took the Season 50 sketch performance length record from Nate Bargatze, whose turn in October 5’s “Washington’s Dream 2” lasted four minutes and 55 seconds. Overall, Bargatze earned about four more minutes of screen time on this outing compared to his October 2023 SNL debut.
Timothée Chalamet – 25:00 / 39.75%
Of those who pulled double duty this season, Timothée Chalamet’s music segments represented the largest portion of his screen time (31.80%).
Bill Burr – 24:18 / 38.63%
Bill Burr was the first of three men to appear in 11 segments during his Season 50 hosting stint, preceding Paul Mescal and Jack Black. Compared to his SNL debut four years earlier, Burr racked up six more minutes of screen time in this season’s first post-election episode on November 9.
Chris Rock – 23:57 / 38.19%
Alongside Martin Short, Chris Rock was one of just two former SNL cast members to host the show this season. He briefly held the record for longest Season 50 monologue (7:48 on December 14) until Chappelle blew him out of the water a month later.
Jack Black – 23:39 / 37.67%
Jack Black became a four-time SNL host on April 5, nearly two full decades after he hosted his third episode. In addition to being one of seven Season 50 hosts to sing during his monologue, he showed off his vocal abilities in three subsequent sketches, including one (“Bass Lake”) structured around Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”.
Paul Mescal – 22:39 / 35.71%
Gladiator II star Mescal accumulated more screen time on December 7 than any other first-time host this season. Conversely, his 53-second turn as Bono in “A Complete Unknown Red Carpet” stands as this season’s briefest performance by a male host in a live sketch.
Ariana Grande – 22:24 / 36.65%
Alongside Gaga, Ariana Grande is the only woman whose screen time came in above the general Season 50 host average (21:44). At just under three minutes, her musical performance in October 12’s “My Best Friend’s House” was the longest given by a host in any pretaped segment this season.
Charli XCX – 21:37 / 34.51%
Charli XCX’s first time hosting SNL was also her third serving as its musical guest. She logged less screen time on November 16 than any other Season 50 musical guest (5:03), with her rendition of “360” being the season’s single shortest musical performance overall.
Quinta Brunson – 21:35 / 34.76%
Quinta Brunson was the last of six Season 50 headliners who had hosted the show once before. Unlike most of this season’s 15 returning stars, she reprised a role she had played in an earlier episode: an unnamed angry driver in May 3’s “Ferry Altercation” (a sequel to Season 48’s “Traffic Altercation”).
Scarlett Johansson – 21:21 / 33.77%
Finale headliner Scarlett Johansson was the only Season 50 host to take part in the “Weekend Update” portion of her episode. She was seen in a total of three episodes this season, having appeared in the Dec 21 episode and in a pretaped cameo as Ivanka Trump in April 12’s “The White POTUS.”
John Mulaney – 20:36 / 32.92%
John Mulaney became SNL’s 13th six-time host on November 2, logging seven fewer minutes on screen than in his fifth outing in February 2022. He appeared in half a dozen segments for more than 100 seconds each, with his nearly three-minute turn in “Beppo” being this season’s longest pretaped performance by a male host.
Martin Short – 17:53 / 28.95%
Short’s Five-Timers Club induction on December 21 involved cameos from nine other members, including Johansson and Mulaney. Counting the current cast, his episode featured a whopping 31 named performers, or eight more than this season’s weekly average.
Mikey Madison – 17:08 / 27.40%
Mikey Madison and Johansson share the record for most segment appearances during a Season 50 hosting stint (12). The Anora star delivered this season’s shortest monologue (3:15 on March 29) as well as its shortest live and pretaped host performances (“Jury Duty,” 0:17; “Spring Break,” 0:18).
Walton Goggins – 16:54 / 27.45%
Walton Goggins made his SNL debut in this season’s penultimate episode on May 10. His relatively low screen time can partially be attributed to the fact that the Mother’s Day show included the season’s lengthiest “Weekend Update” segment (17:45) and musical performance (Arcade Fire’s “Year of the Snake,” 5:34).
Jon Hamm – 16:41 / 27.13%
After making 15 cameos between Seasons 36 and 49, Jon Hamm served as SNL host for the first time in over 14 years on April 12. Among this season’s 13 male hosts, he gave the shortest single-sketch performance (0:23 in “The White POTUS”) and ended up with the lowest amount of screen time per segment (100.1 seconds).
Michael Keaton – 15:49 / 25.16%
Michael Keaton headlined this season’s October 19 show, achieving the rare feat of hosting SNL in four different decades. Compared to his last gig in April 2015, his screen time this season was about six minutes lower.
Jean Smart – 12:18 / 19.51%
Season 50’s first host was also its least prominent. Despite this, she holds this season’s record for longest single-sketch performance by a female host, having logged just over four minutes as fictional author Barbara Berkman in “Textbook Writer.”
