SNL S50 E3: Who Had the Most (and Least) Screen Time?

Marked October 12th Evil Star Ariana Grande’s second hosting stint at Saturday Night Live and her first time as a presenter without also appearing as a musical guest. Compared to her first performance in 2016, her combined monologue and sketch time this go-round was six minutes and 9% longer.

Scroll down to see how Grande fares against each of the show’s named cast members, including musical guest Stevie Nicks and four unannounced guests.

Note: Our method for calculating screen time was developed in collaboration with longtime SNL Statistician Mike Murray, host of the Saturday Night Network’s weekly By The Numbers podcast. We prioritize presence time, which means that all contiguous moments (off-screen but within the scene) and virtually all partial physical appearances do not count. The time shown in the opening credits, bumpers, bedtime songs and short skits is not taken into account, and these proportions do not play a role in our assessment of the overall running time of the episode.

Ariana Grande – 22:12 / 36.18%

Including her musical guest appearances in seasons 40 and 49, Grande appeared in a total of four SNL episodes. This week’s hosting gig was her first in that she sang in several of her segments, including her monologue and the pre-recorded sketches “My Best Friend’s House” and “Celine Dion Sports Promo.”

Stevie Nicks – 8:58 / 14.61%

Given that it has been 41 years since their first appearance SNL In 1983, Nicks now holds the record for the longest gap between consecutive musical guest appearances. The 76-year-old’s relatively lengthy rendition of “The Lighthouse” and “Edge of Seventeen” propelled her to the top of this season’s musical guest appearance rankings by 92 seconds.

James Austin Johnson – 8:11 / 13.34%

James Austin Johnson’s performance time this week moved him from last to third on the list of this season’s most prominent male repertory players. His position behind Bowen Yang and Colin Jost is strengthened by his recent cold open and “Weekend Update” appearances as Donald Trump and Noel Gallagher.

Maya Rudolph – 7:15 / 11.81%

Former cast member Maya Rudolph’s third consecutive cold open appearance as Kamala Harris was followed by a four-minute appearance in the live sketch “Castrati.” She has now overtaken Yang as a regular or recurring cast member with the most screen time to date in the 50th season.

Colin Jost – 5:48 / 9.45%

“Weekend Update” anchor Jost’s 45.55% screen time share in this week’s news segment was close to his lowest of the season (1.15%). Regardless, he still has a nearly seven-minute lead over his co-host Michael Che in total airtime for Season 50.

Andy Samberg – 5:36 / 9.13%

For the second year in a row, Andy Samberg appeared alongside Rudolph in both the cold open and a subsequent sketch (“Castrati”). In the 50th season he now has a total of more airtime (13:58) than almost all of the current series regulars, except Yang and Jost.

Sarah Sherman – 5:30 / 8.96%

Sarah Sherman’s biggest episode of the season so far differed from the previous two in that it was only used before and during “Weekend Update” and not exclusively after. She spent 55% of her time this week playing Jost interviewee Liam Gallagher alongside Johnson’s Noel.

Chloe Fineman – 5:21 / 8.72%

After opening this episode with a return to her first season role as CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, Chloe Fineman participated in three post-monologue skits. She spent more than two-thirds of her time impersonating Jennifer Coolidge in the penultimate part of the evening, “Maybelline.”

Andrew Dismukes – 4:55 / 8.01%

Andrew Dismukes’ screen time in this episode was spread across four live sketches, in which he appeared for less than 83 seconds each. His longest appearance of the night was as the even-tempered husband of Grande’s character on “Charades with Mom.”

Ego Nwodim – 4:53 / 7.96%

Ego Nwodim saw his screen time increase by three minutes and 23 seconds this week after finishing at the bottom of the repertoire player list last week. Her appearances on “Bridesmaid Speech” and “Weekend Update” each lasted longer than two minutes.

Michael Che – 4:21 / 7.09%

The average time gap between Che and Jost in Season 50 decreased by 26 seconds, as they were only 87 seconds apart in this episode. Unlike last week, in this episode, Che conducted a guest interview (with Nwodim) on his Weekend Update desk page.

Kenan Thompson – 4:10 / 6.79%

Kenan Thompson’s total airtime for Season 50 so far (9:39) remains lower than the time he achieved for the Season 49 premiere alone (10:18). Before briefly appearing in “Castrati,” he played a leading role there Family feud-Thematic cold opener by dusting off his Steve Harvey impression for the first time since 2019.

Bowen Yang – 3:38 / 5.92%

Although his final appearance this week was the second live sketch and shorter than eight other cast members, Yang still boasts the highest total regular screen time of the season. After playing and supporting JD Vance in the cold open Evil He co-starred during her monologue for more than two and a half minutes on “Charades with Mom.”

Heidi Gardner – 2:32 / 4.13%

Heidi Gardner continues to be the most used female cast member this season, although currently only by 15 seconds. Over 88% of her time in this episode was spent playing a singing wedding guest in “Bridesmaid Speech.”

Dana Carvey – 2:26 / 3.97%

Appearing as an unannounced guest for the third week in a row, SNL Alum Dana Carvey gave two performances of roughly equal length in Cold Open and “Maybelline.” While his weekly portrayals of President Joe Biden were to be expected, his impression of Coolidge (juxtaposed with those of Fineman and Grande) was truly surprising.

Michael Longfellow – 2:07 / 3.45%

Johnson’s rise in the season 50 screen time rankings leaves Michael Longfellow at the bottom of the repertory group, with Devon Walker immediately overtaking him by 94 seconds. He spent most of his screen time in this episode playing the “Charades with Mom” ​​character Kevin, whose attempt to introduce his boyfriend (Yang) to his family backfires terribly.

Mikey Day – 1:22 / 2.23%

Mikey Day saw an 81% decrease in screen time compared to last week’s episode, where his segment count was double. In this case, he was only briefly seen as Donald Trump Jr. in the cold, open and seemingly harmless suburbanite Mr. Evans in “My Best Friend’s House.”

Jim Gaffigan – 0:57 / 1.55%

Jim Gaffigan’s cold, open performance as Governor Tim Walz was his shortest to date at 35 seconds. Rudolph has spent nearly four times as much time against Harris this season as against her vice president.

Emil Wakim – 0:49 / 1.33%

Cast newcomer Emil Wakim has now appeared in more season 50 segments (five) than any of his featured cast mates. His entire appearance on October 12th consisted of him saying 17 words as Terry on “Charades with Mom.”

Jane Wickline – 0:46 / 1.25%

Although she trailed slightly behind Wakim, Jane Wickline was not the least prominent leading lady of this episode. That award belongs to Ashley Padilla, who did not appear in any sketches that aired this week. Like Wakim, Wickline only appeared in Charades with Mom.

Marcello Hernandez – 0:26 / 0.71%

This represents Marcello Hernandez’s lowest airtime in a single episode since he appeared for just four seconds in the third episode of Season 49. While this performance was pre-recorded, this one (as Playboy Domingo in “Bridesmaid Speech”) was live.

Devon Walker – 0:09 / 0.24%

Walker’s supporting role in My Best Friend’s House moved him from sixth to 13th in the Season 50 cast rankings. Although he was the last repertoire player to appear in this episode, he completed it five sections faster than those who were in the same position on September 28 and October 5.

SNL’s 50th season continues next week with host Michael Keaton and musical guest Billie Eilish.

Can’t get enough SNL stats? Join us for an in-depth discussion about this week’s screen time, power rankings and more on Saturday Night Network By The Numbers PodcastLive streaming Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET, right here on LateNighter.