Editor’s note: Mike Murray hosts The Saturday Night Network’s weekly By the Numbers podcast. This week’s holiday-delayed episode will stream this Friday.
Ariana Grande returned to host Saturday Night Live for the third time this past weekend—and for the third time, she logged more than 20 minutes of screen time. But the biggest headline of SNL‘s 2025 Christmas episode emerged a day before the show aired when it it was revealed that it would be Bowen Yang’s last episode.
Scroll down to see how Grande, Yang, musical guest Cher stacked up against the rest of the cast and an alumni cameo from Aidy Bryant.
Note: Our screen time calculation method prioritizes face time, meaning that any contiguous off-screen-but-in-scene moments and most partial-body appearances do not count. Screen time in the opening credits, bumpers, goodnights, and cut-for-time sketches is not included, nor do those portions factor into our assessment of the episode’s total running time.
Ariana Grande – 20:56 (33.2%)
Returning to host just over a year since her last visit, Ariana Grande briefly reprised two of her roles from her Season 50 headlining visit: her Celine Dion impression in the “Random Christmas Duets” pretape and her “Castrati” character Antonio while introducing Cher’s second performance. Her 5:26 monologue, in which she sang a version of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” was the second longest of the season behind Nikki Glaser’s standup set in early November.
Bowen Yang – 13:12 (20.9%)
Bowen Yang came just 20 seconds shy of tying his career high (13:32 in Season 49’s Jason Momoa episode) in his final episode as a cast member. Hired as a writer in Season 44 and joining the cast in Season 45, Bowen Yang finishes his seven-year run with 396 appearances and comes in just 14 minutes shy of 10 hours of screen time.
His final sketch was the second-longest appearance of his career, a 5:16 emotional sendoff where he played “Ed” a Delta Sky Lounge employee working his final shift. Yang also played Yoko Ono, dropped by Grande’s monologue, and reprised the “Trend Forecasters” with former castmate Aidy Bryant on “Weekend Update.” This was Yang’s 11th career episode leading the cast in screen time.
James Austin Johnson – 08:50 (14.0%)
In his eighth highest career screen time, Johnson contributed to five of this week’s first six segments, including his 47th appearance as the 47th president in a solo cold open and “Random Christmas Duets,” in which he portrayed Andrea Bocelli, Cameron Winter, and Bob Dylan.
Cher – 07:52 (12.5%)
Returning as musical guest for the first time in over 38 years, Cher performed “DJ Play a Christmas Song” and a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” backed by the SNL band on the home base stage. She also joined Bowen Yang and Ariana Grande in the final sketch of the night, “Delta Lounge,” playing Yang’s boss in his sendoff piece.
Mikey Day – 07:33 (12.0%)
Day played The Grinch for the second time in as many weeks in his first seven-plus minute episode since Quinta Brunson hosted last May (10:10). He also appeared as the prosecutor in “Black Santa,” an elf in “Elf on the Shelf Support Group,” and as Kevin’s dad in the “Home Alone” pretape.
Kenan Thompson – 06:19 (10.0%)
“I’ll miss you too, Kenan Thompson” said Bowen Yang’s character in the “Delta Lounge” sketch during their goodbye moment. Earlier in the night, Thompson led the “Black Santa” sketch, re-writing musical guest Cher’s 1998 hit “Believe.” This was his seventh episode with five or more appearances since the start of Season 50. Thompson has been a cast member on SNL more than three and a half times Bowen Yang’s tenure on the show.
Colin Jost – 05:25 (8.6%)
Jost crossed the one hour mark in cumulative Season 51 screen time during the final seconds of a “Weekend Update” that saw no guests visit his side of the desk. He made his third appearance this season outside of “Update” playing Buzz in the “Home Alone” pretape.
Michael Che – 05:18 (8.4%)
Michael Che broke his two-month streak without an “Update” guest segment and logged more news desk screen time than Colin Jost for the first time since this year’s season premiere. It has been nearly fifty episodes and over two years since Che has appeared elsewhere in the show (Season 49 premiere, hosted by Pete Davidson).
Kam Patterson – 05:08 (8.1%)
Kam Patterson finished off the first half of his rookie year with a career best screen time. This comes after averaging just 01:16 per episode since Amy Poehler’s episode in early October and placing last in the cast in five of the first eight episodes. Patterson made a total of five appearances this week, logging the most screen time for playing Michael Che’s twelve year-old nephew on Weekend Update.
Marcello Hernández – 04:46 (7.6%)
This week saw Marcello Hernández make his second longest sketch appearance of the season (behind his impression of Sebastian Maniscalco in Glen Powell’s episode) as a dance instructor with Ariana Grande in “Dancing 101.” He also appeared in Grande’s monologue and played Bad Bunny in the “Random Christmas Duets” pretape.
Chloe Fineman – 04:27 (7.1%)
Chloe Fineman hit the seven-hour mark of her SNL career during this week’s “Dancing 101” sketch. She continues to lead the cast in both time (07:56) and appearances (12) in this season’s pretape segments. With Yang’s departure, Fineman will be the show’s only remaining member of the Season 45 class, which also briefly included Shane Gillis. She has broken all her personal bests this season, averaging six minutes per episode so far.
Andrew Dismukes – 04:14 (6.7%)
Dismukes is the only cast member to appear for four or more minutes in each episode this season. This week he led the first sketch of the night, “Elf on the Shelf Support Group,” played Old Man Marley in the “Home Alone” pretape, reprised his Bruce Springsteen impression in the “Random Christmas Duets,” played Nick Lachey in “Love is Blind Reunion,” and was one of only three cast members to say goodbye to Bowen Yang in his final sketch. Dismukes was a member of the writing staff when Bowen Yang joined in 2018.
Aidy Bryant – 03:32 (5.6%)
Former cast member Aidy Bryant returned to the show for the first time (outside SNL50) the same way she left it—next to Bowen Yang as one half of the “Trend Forecasters.” The pair did the characters three times in Bryant’s final season. She had the 9th longest SNL career in history, appearing on the show from 2012-2022.
Ashley Padilla – 03:01 (4.8%)
Ashley Padilla’s Season 51 hot streak took a pause this week with screen time closer to her rookie average (02:50). In the three episodes prior, she totaled more screen time (26:06) than in her entire first half of last season (21:34). Her longest appearance this week came playing Catherine O’Hara’s character in the “Home Alone” pretape, where she hit two hours career screen time. She has appeared in 10 out of this season’s 20 pretapes to date and is on pace for over 100 appearances in Season 51.
Jeremy Culhane – 02:43 (4.3%)
Jeremy Culhane made three consecutive appearances early in the night to bring his total to 30 this season. He made his fifth-longest appearance (01:32) in “Dancing 101” working with veterans Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, and James Austin Johnson as fellow dance students.
Veronika Slowikowska – 02:32 (4.0%)
Slowikowsa is set to become the first Season 51 rookie to hit a half hour of screen time when the show returns in January. She was the only rookie to join Ariana Grande’s musical monologue, appearing for 53 seconds, which also happens to be her per appearance season average.
Sarah Sherman – 02:00 (3.2%)
Sarah Sherman followed up the release of her HBO comedy special Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh with her lowest screen time since last season’s premiere hosted by Jean Smart (01:52). She made her sixth career monologue appearance (her longest of the night at 1:01), and three small appearances totaling just under a minute, including an impression of Kate Bush in the “Random Christmas Duets” pretape.
Jane Wickline – 01:30 (2.4%)
SNL got meta this week when Wickline appeared as herself singing a Christmas duet with Lil Jon (played by Kam Patterson) in the “Random Christmas Duets” pretape. As it happens, she had identical screen time when Ariana Grande hosted last season; she’s averaging 15 more seconds per episode in her sophomore year.
Tommy Brennan – 00:52 (1.4%)
Brennan followed up his season low (16 seconds in Josh O’Connor’s episode) with the third sub-minute episode of his rookie season. From episodes 2 to 7, he averaged 04:08 per episode. His appearances this week were in the “Home Alone” pretape and the “Love is Blind” live sketch.
Ben Marshall – 00:36 (1.0%)
This week saw Ben Marshall register his second-lowest screen time of the season (24 seconds more than the premiere hosted by Bad Bunny). His lone appearance came during the “Love is Blind” sketch after “Weekend Update.” Though he was upped to featured player at the start of Season 51, Marshall averaged 01:09 of screen time during his time in Please Don’t Destroy (Season 47-50)
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