Can’t get enough SNL stats? Join us for an in-depth discussion of SNL UK’s first-season screen time totals, power rankings, and more on the Saturday Night Network’s Legacy Watch podcast, streaming live at the top of this post Monday night at 7 p.m. ET/11 p.m. GMT, or catch the replay afterward.
That’s a wrap on Saturday Night Live UK’s inaugural season (or “series” as they call them in the UK), but there’s one more matter to settle: which members of the show’s debut cast logged the most—and least—screen time?
Across this year’s eight-episode run, each of the show’s 11 cast members appeared on screen for an average total of 53 minutes and 53 seconds. Two cast members clocked in at over an hour, while only one fell short of the 40-minute mark. Scroll down to see how each stacked up on the screen time leaderboard.
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.
Jack Shep – 01:18:45 (18.5%)
Jack Shep, the 26-year-old TikTok comedian from Bedfordshire, took a commanding lead in total screen time after just the second episode and never looked back, logging at least eight minutes of time in six of the season’s eight episodes (and averaging more than six in the other two).
Add it all up, and Shep led the cast in both live sketch screen time (41:47, 53% of his season) and in pretape screen time (12:32, 16% of his season). His three longest appearances were in “Who Will Land the Plane?” with Nicola Coughlan (03:52), “Masters” with Jack Whitehall (03:34), and “Lost Luggage” (03:20) with Aimee Lou Wood.
George Fouracres – 01:11:05 (16.7%)
Fouracres led the cast in the Tina Fey-hosted premiere, debuting his role as Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and went on to reprise the role five more times, logging over a quarter of his time in the show’s Cold Opens.
Though not quite as consistent episode-to-episode as Shep, Fouracres accrued ten minutes or more of screen time in half the season’s eight episodes, and boasted the highest screen time per appearance average (01:52) outside of “Update” anchors Ania Magliano and Paddy Young.
Annabel Marlow – 54:40 (12.8%)
Marlow hit her screen time peak early on, logging a season-high 12:41 in the show’s second episode, hosted by Jamie Dornan. Her longest appearance of the season (04:25) came during that episode in “Hostage,” and she later showed off her singing abilities in “Gluing Wraps” (04:12, her second-longest).
When Hannah Waddingham hosted the first episode of May, Marlow’s musical talents were on display again with over six minutes of time in “End of Year Musical” and “Glasses of Wine.” With just one second more than Celeste Dring, Marlow led the women of the cast in screen time.
Celeste Dring – 54:39 (12.8%)
Celeste Dring logged 25 appearances of a minute or more, serving in utility roles in every episode. “Gluing Wraps” (03:33) and “The Battle Within” (03:16) with Jamie Dornan brought Dring’s two highest screen times. Her best episode came when Jack Whitehall hosted, where she played Wendy in “Drunk Peter Pan” and led the solo “Falling Down a Hill with Helen Birch.” She also made her “Update” debut in the Whitehall episode, playing a jockey accompanied by her racehorse (played by Al Nash).
Emma Sidi – 51:19 (12.0%)
Sidi hit the ground running in the show’s premiere episode, accruing an impressive 3:31 with her appearance in “Bra Fitting” alongside Tina Fey. Other screen time highlights included her recurring “Update” character in “The Woman Who Can’t Be Ignored” and her Cold Open portrayal of Melania Trump in Jack Whitehall’s episode.
All told, she averaged 06:25 per episode throughout the season, logging a peak screen time of 8:43 during the Nicola Coughlan episode.
Al Nash – 49:53 (11.7%)
Outside of anchors Magliano and Young, Al Nash led the cast in “Weekend Update” screen time with nearly eight total minutes over five appearances. He was also the first cast member to have a guest feature at the “Update” desk, playing “Captain Birdseye.”
Nash’s longest sketch appearance of the season came in “Foot Locker” with host Hannah Waddingham (03:14), and he had a recurring impression as Winston Churchill. His two highest screen time episodes were back-to-back (episodes 3-4) hosted by Riz Ahmed and Jack Whitehall, in which he averaged just under ten minutes.
Ayoade Bamgboye – 47:45 (11.2%)
Bamgboye had the most even distribution of time spread across the season, appearing in the middle of the pack in all categories. She appeared as herself on “Update” three times (05:28), in eight of the season’s 19 pretapes (05:53), and in nearly 40% of the live sketches (28:31). Bamgboye scored the most time with Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed (episodes 2-3) and logged under four minutes in only one episode (Aimee Lou Wood).
Hammed Animshaun – 46:30 (10.9%)
Animashaun started the season off with a bang, accruing six appearances in Tina Fey’s premiere episode, including his impression of David Lammy and hosting the movie talk show “Boovies Goes to the Films.” The 35-year-old London comedian’s longest sketch appearances came in “Who Will Land the Plane” with Nicola Coughlan (03:45), “Doctor Who” with Aimee Lou Wood (03:30), and “NCT Class” with Riz Ahmed (03:12).
Paddy Young – 42:50 (10.0%)
Despite 68 fewer seconds than fellow “Weekend Update” anchor Ania Magliano, Paddy Young’s sketch appearances ended up netting him a 70-second lead over his co-anchor.
At 7:25, the season finale ended up being his peak screen time episode, thanks to a 02:21 appearance in the Cold Open. He also made a few early appearances outside “Update” in pretapes including “Undérage: The Anti-Aging Cream” with Tina Fey, and “Night Time Incident” with Jamie Dornan.
Ania Magliano – 41:40 (9.8%)
Magliano spent 97% of her season behind the “Weekend Update” desk, appearing in just one live sketch (“Posh Gits” with Aimee Lou Wood), one pretape (“Paddington Bear Experience” with Tina Fey), and in one monologue (with Nicola Coughlan). Her strongest run came in episodes 5-7, where she averaged 06:38 per episode. All told, Magliano had the fewest overall appearances among the cast (11), and the highest average screen time per appearance (03:47).
Larry Dean – 33:29 (7.8%)
Dean led the cast in pretape appearances (14), a portion of the show that accounted for 21% of his season. He had the longest wait for a breakout episode, peaking in the sixth episode hosted by Aimee Lou Wood (09:14), thanks to his portrayal of King Charles in the Cold Open and an appearance as himself on “Weekend Update” (02:15), in which he showed off his impressions of British voters.
His longest sketch appearance occurred in the finale hosted by Ncuti Gatwa, where he played Louis Theroux in a sketch that ended with an appearance by Theroux himself.
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