Editor’s note: Mike Murray hosts Saturday Night Network’s weekly By the Numbers podcast, which this week will also cover SNL UK‘s latest episode. Click the embed at the top of this post to watch it live Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, or catch the replay afterward.
Following a cameo-packed Five-Timers episode hosted by Jack Black, Colman Domingo went cameo-free in his statistically impressive SNL debut. See how he stacked up against the cast and musical guest, Anitta.
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 an episode’s total running time.
Colman Domingo – 24:02 (37.8%)
The ninth first-time host of Season 51 led the show like a veteran, collecting more time on screen than three-timer Ariana Grande (20:56), four-timer Ryan Gosling (22:48), and even five-timer Jack Black (23:39). With a shorter monologue than all three of those veteran hosts, Domingo racked up the seaon’s third-most live sketch time (17:01, behind only Melissa McCarthy and Glen Powell). The night’s first three live sketches—“Fashion District Robbery” (04:40), “Artemis II” (04:19), and “What If I Told You” (03:55)—helped propel the two-time Oscar nominee to nearly 19 minutes before we even got to “Weekend Update” at quarter past twelve. That’s more than fellow first-timers Josh O’Connor or Finn Wolfhard in their entire episodes.
Marcello Hernández – 16:05 (25.3%)
In terms of total screen time, Hernández had the highest for a cast member in at least nine seasons; the closest peak in that span was Kate McKinnon’s 15:29 in Season 45 (Kristen Stewart/Coldplay). This monumental night for Hernández tops his career best that was set just two episodes ago when Harry Styles hosted (13:24). He shared the screen with Domingo for over four minutes in “Fashion District Robbery” and added another four minutes in his cast-leading seventh “Update” visit. His seasons seem to heat up in spring, seeing as his five best career episodes (out of 75) have all aired in March or later.
Ashley Padilla – 10:20 (16.3%)
Padilla continues to find ways to improve her stellar stat season, picking up two of her five longest career appearances in “Fashion District Robbery” (04:57) and “Grandpa’s Wake” (04:34). This week’s show was her fifth with ten minutes or more, increasing her season-to-date average to seven-and-a-half minutes. No cast member has averaged a higher per-episode number since Kenan Thompson (07:45) and Kate McKinnon (07:44) back in Season 44. Padilla became the first cast member to reach two hours of Season 51 time, and in the same night (her 37th episode) hit a career total of three hours.
Colin Jost – 09:05 (14.3%)
Jost made three appearances in one night for the third time in his career (and all this season). He reprised Pete Hegseth in the Cold Open for an eighth time; his 19:30 of screen time spent as Hegseth this season accounts for 16% of his season. Later, he played “Mac Daddy Vanilla” in the parade of pimps during “Grandpa’s Wake,” immediately after co-anchoring his eighth-longest “Update” of Season 51.
Jane Wickline – 07:43 (12.1%)
With a four-appearance night that included a new “Update” character (Lindt Greer, Gen Z Sexpert), Wickline set a career best (surpassing 06:29 in Chris Rock’s Season 50 episode). Her first-ever seven-minute show brought her Season 51 total above Bowen Yang (who departed eight episodes ago) as well as the four rookie men of the cast. Wickline is due to hit 100 career appearances when the show returns in May.
Kam Patterson – 07:32 (11.9%)
Patterson was yet another cast member to set a career high in Domingo’s episode. Following his appearance as “Professor Snape” in Jack Black’s episode last week, Patterson returned to the “Weekend Update” desk alongside Hernández as “Two Kids from the Back of the Bus.” His four other “Update” appearances have averaged 02:40, but this outing was his longest time on camera all season (04:13). Patterson has accumulated more screen time in the last two weeks than he did in the previous six episodes combined.
James Austin Johnson – 05:54 (9.3%)
Johnson joined an exclusive club when he and Jost exclaimed, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night” at the end of this week’s Cold Open. He is now one of only five people in SNL‘s over 50-year history to say the iconic phrase 50+ times, alongside Darrell Hammond, Kate McKinnon, Dana Carvey and Kenan Thompson.
Anitta – 05:42 (9.0%)
With a short leadoff performance (02:22) , Anitta had the second-lowest screen time of Season 51’s musical guests (Cardi B had just 05:30 in January, and that included a sketch appearance). The first Brazilian headliner also performed “Várias Quejas,” which translates to “Several Complaints.” Her upcoming seventh studio album, “Equilibrium” is set to be released tomorrow.
Michael Che – 05:23 (8.5%)
Che hosted Wickline’s newest original character, Gen Z Sexpert, Lindt Greer. His total nearly tied his season-best (05:58, from the premiere hosted by Bad Bunny). When Olivia Rodrigo pulls double duty in May, it will be Che’s 240th as “Weekend Update” co-anchor.
Jeremy Culhane – 05:00 (7.9%)
Culhane is inching ever closer to 60 minutes and 60 appearances. He was the lone cast member to join Colman Domingo in his monologue (previously appearing in Amy Poehler’s monologue with his fellow rookies). His longest appearance came playing Padilla’s son (with Hernández) in “Grandpa’s Wake.” At 03:04, it was his third-longest appearance of the season (behind “Free Sample” with Melissa McCarthy and his “Update” character, Mr. On Blast, in Teyana Taylor’s episode).
Chloe Fineman – 04:59 (7.8%)
Since her absence in February’s episode hosted by Connor Storrie, Fineman’s screen time has cooled. She averaged 05:46/episode in the first 12 episodes… and 03:39 since that week off. In the “Trump Making Calls” Cold Open, Fineman made her first live Melania Trump impression (she played the First Lady in two earlier pretapes; Cecily Strong held the impression from 2015-2019 with 22 appearances). The longest tenured woman of SNL’s current cast is the only one yet to make an appearance at the “Update” desk this season.
Tommy Brennan – 04:25 (6.9%)
Brennans role as one of the teenage “Beastomorphs” in the night’s final piece was his 50th appearance of the season, helping him notch his fourth four-minute episode. Brennan has bounced back from a big midseason slump (averaging just 89 seconds per episode over eight episodes, from Josh O’Connor to Harry Styles). He’s now racked up 09:32 in the past two weeks.
Mikey Day – 03:24 (5.4%)
Day tied Hernández for number of appearances this week, but with a per-sketch average of just 41 seconds, he racked up far less total screen time. His longest appearance came in “Artemis II,” a sketch that saw him floating around the spacecraft with Hernández, Sherman and Domingo. Day is the tenth-longest tenured cast member in SNL history, closing in on Aidy Bryant in ninth place.
Andrew Dismukes – 02:48 (4.4%)
Dismukes made two impactful appearances opposite host Domingo—first in “What if I Told You,” where he appeared first as a living vase and potential lover (01:01), and last as the dubious student in “Prep School” (01:47). The six-year cast member had a strong week with Jack Black, following three consecutive bottom-three finishes, only to fall back to the bottom five this week. Dismukes still ranks ninth in total time this season.
Ben Marshall – 02:38 (4.1%)
Marshall totaled right about average for his rookie year as a cast member, hovering between two and three minutes. He had a brief though prominent presence in the first pretape, “Uneek Cuts Barbershop,” and three ensemble appearances in the three live sketches that followed. He ranks 16th in the cast in total time (45:51) for Season 51, including Bowen Yang’s 54:35 in the season’s first nine episodes.
Sarah Sherman – 02:38 (4.1%)
Sherman’s career-best streak of five episodes came to an end this week with her third-lowest screen time of the season. She made two live sketch appearances totaling 54 seconds before taking the lead in the night’s final piece, the “Beastomorphs” pretape, which saw her morph halfway between high school girl and frog.
Kenan Thompson – 02:37 (4.1%)
Thompson went from cast leader with Jack Black (11:08) to second-to-last this week, compiling five appearances averaging just 31 seconds each. He was Trump’s first phone call in the Cold Open, where he played Tiger Woods for a fourth time. Thompson has now appeared in nearly 46% of SNL’s 1,005 episodes.
Veronika Slowikowska – 01:33 (2.4%)
Rookie screen time leader Slowikowska has had her lowest back-to-back total (02:49) since her first two episodes (hosted by Bad Bunny and Amy Poehler). During the three-episode stretch of Storrie-Gosling-Styles, she averaged 08:07 per week. Her longest appearance this week came just before the Goodnights as a member of the shapeshifting “Beastomorphs.”
Get stories like this in your inbox: Sign up for LateNighter’s free daily newsletter.
