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.
The first-ever Scandinavian-born host, Alexander Skarsgård, was tasked with hosting SNL’s historic 1,000th episode. See how he and musical guest Cardi B stacked up against the cast.
Note: Our 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.
Alexander Skarsgård – 23:19 (37.2%)
Skarsgård enjoyed the 10th-highest screen time ever for a first-time, non-alumni host (excluding those pulling double duty with musical performances). Impressively, he racked up that tally without the aid of an appearance in the Cold Open, “Weekend Update,” or a lengthy monologue. Skarsgård commanded the live sketches like a veteran, appearing in nearly 17 minutes of those alone (the 12th-highest count in last 150 episodes). He paired with Chloe Fineman for 03:47 in the “Scandinavian Film 2” sketch, the same number he saw in his SNL band-inspired monologue. He also played an Olympic luge coach and a Viking in the night’s two pretapes.
Ashley Padilla – 10:05 (16.1%)
Padilla, with the fourth-highest screen time of her career, topped the cast for a second time. Along with this season’s episodes hosted by Sabrina Carpenter and Glen Powell, this is her third episode logging 10 minutes or more of screen time; no one else in the cast has had more than one. In the post-monologue sketch, “Mom’s Confession,” Padilla had the season’s second-longest live sketch role in the cast with 03:57. Her “Update” pairing with Andrew Dismukes, “Two People Who Just Hooked Up” made a return to metaphorically discuss the Super Bowl. (They debuted in Miles Teller’s November episode to discuss the government shutdown.) This was her 10th episode with five appearances.
Sarah Sherman – 10:01 (16.0%)
Sherman hit a season-high that included her 20th career “Weekend Update” appearance (and seventh as herself), where she reported on the weather live outside of 30 Rock. She held onto the screen for the remainder of the night leading the cast with 05:49 over the final three sketches that saw her notably play Jane to host Alexander Skarsgård’s Tarzan. (Her three other episodes with 10 minutes or more of screen time occurred last season with hosts Charli XCX, Timothée Chalamet, and Jon Hamm.)
Andrew Dismukes – 07:21 (11.7%)
Dismukes scored his 10th-highest screen time of his career with six appearances. During his reprisal of “Two People Who Just Hooked Up” on “Weekend Update” with Padilla, he hit the seven-hour career screen time milestone.
Chloe Fineman – 06:24 (10.2%)
Reprising her role as the actress in “Scandinavian Movie 2,” Chloe tied her ninth-longest live sketch appearance (excludes “Weekend Update” and Cold Opens) at 03:28. Continuing her career year on SNL, Skarsgård’s outing becomes the fifth Season 51 episode to rank in her Top 15 best. Fineman joined the women of the cast in “Play Date”, was the only woman in “Viking Raid,” and portrayed a figure skater in “Winter Olympics Promo.”
Colin Jost – 05:55 (9.4%)
Jost’s sole appearance was co-anchoring “Weekend Update” with Michael Che for the 233rd time. There, he handled both guest segments (Sarah Sherman’s weather report and “Two People Who Just Hooked Up”).
Jane Wickline – 05:47 (9.2%)
Wickline bounced back with her third-highest career screen time after clocking under a minute last week. She had a strong start to the night, appearing in three consecutive segments for the first time in her 1-1/2 season tenure. These appearances from Wickline all came immediately following the monologue: a supporting role in “Mom’s Confession,” a leading role in “Winter Olympics Promo,” and reprising her clapboard-wielding crew member in “Scandinavian Movie 2.” Her longest appearance came in a scene-stealing role in the “Play Date” sketch after “Weekend Update.”
Cardi B – 05:30 (8.8%)
Despite a sketch cameo early in the night, Cardi B tied for the 10th-lowest screen time for a musical guest in the last 150 episodes. Her two performances off her second album, Am I The Drama?, averaged just two-and-a-half minutes. The first song, “Bodega Baddie,” was the shortest SNL musical performance in almost four years (since Gunna’s sub-two minute performance of “pushin P” in April 2022). Cardi B had 07:49 of screen time when she first guested in the Season 43 episode hosted by the late Chadwick Boseman.
Marcello Hernández – 05:01 (8.0%)
Hernández had the longest sketch appearance of the night (04:38) with the second reprisal of his “Immigrant Dad Talk Show” character, Joaquin. These three iterations of this character account for seven of his longest career appearances (previously joined by Ramy Youseff in Season 49 and Dave Chappelle in Season 50 in the same format). Out of his 70 career episodes, he’s now reached five minutes of screen time in 25 (36%). He also played an Olympic snowboarder in the first pretape.
Veronika Slowikowska – 04:21 (6.9%)
Slowikowska scored her fourth-best screen time of her rookie season, despite making only two appearances. She had 03:23 in “Play Date” and nearly a minute in the “Funny Boyfriend” sketch. She leads the Season 51 rookies in overall screen time, hitting 40 total minutes with this week’s final sketch.
Pete Davidson – 03:39 (5.8%)
Eight-season alum Davidson made his third drop-in at SNL since hosting the Season 49 premiere, leading the Cold Open as White House Border Czar Tom Homan. His last cameo was almost identical in length when he returned to the “Update” desk in Miles Teller’s November 2025 (03:42).
Mikey Day – 03:19 (5.3%)
Day made five appearances (including an impressive four consecutive segments), but none were longer than a minute, other than recurring his role as the director in “Scandinavian Film 2.” He averaged 30 seconds across the other three that included the Cold Open, “Winter Olympics Promo,” his recurring role in “Immigrant Dad Talk Show,” and “The Viking Raid.”
Michael Che – 03:02 (4.8%)
Che checked in 48 seconds lower than his season average, making his only appearance of the night at the “Update” desk. He fielded no guest correspondents for the eighth time this season.
James Austin Johnson – 02:42 (4.3%)
Johnson took the night off from playing Donald Trump for just the second time this season, though he did still appear in his 11th Cold Open of the season (a cast high). This was just the third episode over the last 20 episodes where Johnson had less than three minutes of screen time. He made other appearances in the “Viking Raid” pretape and the night’s final sketch, “Funny Boyfriend.”
Tommy Brennan – 01:47 (2.8%)
Brennan had his best outing in nearly two months, but hasn’t been able to reach back to the average he established over his first seven episodes. Brennan had two ensemble appearances in sketches with Alexander Skarsgård, as his son in “Mom’s Confession” and fellow warrior in “Viking Raid.”
Ben Marshall – 01:42 (2.7%)
Marshall easily surpassed last week’s three-second episode with a minute in the Cold Open and the rest in the “Viking Raid” pretape. Nearly a quarter of his screen time has occurred during pretapes, which leads the cast by a large margin.
Stellan Skarsgård – 01:29 (2.4%)
After recently picking up his first Academy Award nomination for Sentimental Value, the host’s father made back-to-back cameos in the night’s two recurring sketches, “Scandinavian Movie” and “Immigrant Dad Talk Show.” In the first iteration of “Scandinavian Movie,” he was portrayed by James Austin Johnson. (Familial Fun Fact: Most recently, Dua Lipa’s parents appeared in her monologue when she pulled double duty in Season 49.)
Kenan Thompson – 01:05 (1.7%)
Following a nine-minute episode last week with Teyana Taylor, Thompson had his lowest screen time since Mikey Madison hosted last March. He appeared for 38 seconds as an ICE Agent in the Cold Open, and was only seen for 27 seconds for the remainder of the night.
Jeremy Culhane – 00:49 (1.3%)
Culhane had his third episode with under a minute this season, appearing in “The Viking Raid” and the Cold Open. He had averaged four minutes per episode the previous six episodes.
Jack McBrayer – 00:21 (0.6%)
McBrayer—a good friend of host Alexander Skarsgård—made a cameo during Sherman’s “Update” weather correspondent segment, kinda sorta maybe appearing as 30 Rock‘s Kenneth. He’s made an appearance on SNL four other times, most recently in 2015 during Tracy Morgan’s monologue that reunited him with other 30 Rock costars Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski.
Kam Patterson – 00:00 (0.0%)
Patterson became only the second shutout of Season 51, the previous being Wickline in the premiere hosted by Bad Bunny. (Fellow castmates Dismukes, Fineman, Sherman, and Padilla also suffered shutouts in their rookie seasons.)
