Editor’s note: Mike Murray hosts The Saturday Night Network’s weekly By the Numbers podcast. 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.
For the first time in over eight-and-a-half years, Melissa McCarthy returned to Studio 8H to host for a sixth time. In doing so, she joins Scarlett Johansson (7), Tina Fey (6) and Drew Barrymore (6) on the list of most prolific women SNL hosts. Scroll to see how McCarthy stacked up against each of the show’s named performers and musical guest Dijon.
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.
Melissa McCarthy 25:03 (40.3%)
McCarthy appeared in all five sketches (18:45), both pretapes (01:42), and showcased her the physical comedy she is known for in a musical monologue (04:28). She finished with the fifth-most screen time among Season 51 hosts, besting only Bad Bunny and Miles Teller.
Colin Jost 10:55 (17.6%)
Jost returned as Pete Hegseth in this week’s Cold Open for over three-and-a-half minutes, contributing to his second-highest screen time of the past nine seasons; only in last season’s Walton Goggins episode did he have a higher total (11:00). Jost had both guests on his side of the desk and racked up over seven minutes in “Weekend Update.”
Sarah Sherman 08:29 (13.7%)
Sarah Sherman scored her fifth-highest career screen time due in large part to appearing as a drunk raccoon from Virginia. She has now made 19 career “Weekend Update” appearances that account for 18.5% of her screen time since Season 47.
Dijon 07:40 (12.3%)
Dijon made his SNL debut performing “HIGHER!” and “Another Baby!” from his second album, Baby, which was released over the summer. His musical performances were the third-longest of Season 51 thus far, behind Brandi Carlile and Doja Cat.
Ashley Padilla 07:20 (11.8%)
Ashley Padilla finished in the top 3 among the cast for the fourth time this season. As a result, she continues the amazing feat of leading the entire cast in screen time through seven episodes as a featured player (52:48). Padilla is on pace for an SNL veteran accomplishment—two-and-a-half hours of screen time and 100 appearances in a single season.
Bowen Yang 05:39 (9.1%)
Bowen Yang had his second-strongest screen time of Season 51, behind Miles Teller’s week (07:12). Yang finally had his chance to play a character duo with Melissa McCarthy, who last hosted two seasons prior to Yang joining the writing staff in Season 44. The final sketch of the night saw Yang and McCarthy playing a Yonkers couple being interviewed about their extensive holiday decoration collection.
Mikey Day 05:35 (9.0%)
Mikey Day made a solid pairing with Padilla in the “UPS Driver” sketch where he wrestled with McCarthy. Supporting roles in a “Helping Hand” pretape and “Free Sample” sketch placed him fourth in the cast in screen time.
Andrew Dismukes 04:43 (7.6%)
It’s hard to find a more consistent cast member than Andrew Dismukes. He hasn’t had a screen time below three minutes since the first episode of 2025 hosted by Dave Chappelle, and has averaged 06:12 since then. He led the “Sunday Supper” sketch and appeared in the first two segments of the evening.
Jeremy Culhane 04:34 (7.4%)
Culhane notched his longest career appearance (03:41) for a third straight episode this week in the post-monologue sketch, “Free Sample,” paired with McCarthy. This follows a 02:42 appearance in the bachelor party sketch with Glen Powell and 02:24 appearance in “Make-Believe Meadow” with Nikki Glaser. He introduced Jost’s Pete Hegseth and played a police officer in the first pretape.
Jane Wickline 04:08 (6.7%)
Wickline led a pretape for the first time since last season’s “Tiny Baby Shoe” in the spring with Walton Goggins as host. She paired with rookie Veronika Slowikowsa in “Cousin Planet,” a musical short, following appearances in the monologue and “Truth or Dare” sketch. This week was her seventh-highest career episode and more screen time than the last three episodes combined (03:07).
Ben Marshall 03:46 (6.1%)
Ben Marshall made his “Weekend Update” debut as Lance, a redhead who just went on vacation. (Kate McKinnon in 2012 and Abby Elliott in 2009 also made their first appearance on “Weekend Update” in their seventh episodes.) Marshall was seen earlier in the night in the Cold Open (for 19 seconds) and as a reporter in “Free Sample” (18 seconds).
Chloe Fineman 03:37 (5.8%)
Chloe Fineman followed her career-high (11:22 in the Glen Powell episode) with a run closer to her average (03:19). She made three appearances this week, most prominently in the “Truth or Dare” sketch that featured all the women of the cast plus McCarthy.
Michael Che 03:11 (5.1%)
In a fascinating coincidence, Michael Che logged identical screen time to the previous episode (03:11). He has not had an “Update” guest on his side of the desk since the second of the season in early October.
Tommy Brennan 03:06 (5.0%)
Tommy Brennan scored most of his time (02:27) in the final sketch of the night, interviewing Christopher and Guillaume (played by Yang and McCarthy) on their holiday decoration collection, marking his fifth-longest career appearance.
Veronika Slowikowska 02:46 (4.5%)
Veronika Slowikowsa’s pairing with Wickline in “Cousin Planet” was her third-longest appearance to date behind the “Domingo” cold open and “Appliance Store” sketch in the Sabrina Carpenter episode. She is tied with classmates Jeremy Culhane, Tommy Brennan, and Ben Marshall for 26 appearances among the rookies.
James Austin Johnson 01:34 (2.5%)
With only one appearance—his 45th turn as Donald Trump—James Austin Johnson logged his 13th-lowest career screen time. He still ranks sixth in Season 51 with 34:46 of total screen time. (He has had less than two minutes in only 22 of his 86 episodes.)
Kenan Thompson 01:27 (2.3%)
Kenan Thompson made an appearance singing in the monologue, accompanied by McCarthy’s “mouth horn” and as a pimp in the “Helping Hand” pretape. He led the cast in Miles Teller’s episode, and twice last season, but his episode average has declined incrementally since a near 7-minute average in Season 48.
Marcello Hernández 01:11 (1.9%)
Marcello Hernández fell back to the bottom after a career Top 10 episode with Glen Powell, in turn, his season average dropped from 04:22 to 03:55. He appeared in McCarthy’s monologue, dressed as an elf pushing a piano across the stage, and as the bully in “A Helping Hand”.
Kam Patterson 00:39 (1.0%)
Kam Patterson finished last in the cast for the fourth time this season. He made a single appearance in “Sunday Supper,” his 20th sketch of his rookie year.
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What is the point of this “screen time report”?
This is pointless. Someone is wasting their time doing this.