Saturday Night Live rolls the dice every episode. It's a show beholden to the talents of its host, which means sometimes you strike gold, and sometimes you get Steven Seagal. The 50th season placed a lot of emphasis on legacy, and standout moments from the past decades, but at the end of the day, it was still a mixed bag of ideas and hosts.
Now that SNL 50 is is wrapping up, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the season that was, and determine which hosts delivered, as well as which ones didn't. You might have forgotten how good some of these celebrities were (or were not) and we are here to serve as a reminder.
Misused: Paul Mescal
Paul Mescal's searing intensity is his greatest tool. It's the reason he's become an internet favorite, and the reason he scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 2022. He can do a lot, but comedy may not be particularly high on that list. Mescal is charming enough to watch, but the discomfort he had with some of the sketches was evident onscreen.
Mescal's hesitance to skew silly, in comparison to another young actor like Timothee Chalamet, was not helped by a batch of mediocre sketches that did little to stick in our minds, with the exception of the Gladiator musical.
Excelled: Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande had a banner year, scoring an Oscar nomination for her performance in Wicked and proving that she is an absolute dynamite SNL host. Grande was a musical guest on the show in 2014 and 2024, and pulled double duty in 2016, but her hosting only performance in season 50 proved to be even better than we anticipated.
Grande not only helped to launch the "Domingo" character that has taken the internet by storm, but she also turned in hilarious impressions of Celine Dion and Jennifer Coolidge throughout the episode as well. We say bring her back once Wicked For Good releases!
Disappointed: Mikey Madison
Mikey Madison is one of the brightest young stars in Hollywood. She just won the Oscar for Best Actress, and has already proven her comedic bona fides in darkly humorous films like Once Upon a Time In Hollywood and Scream (2022). We assumed her firecracker energy would translate well to SNL's stage. Unfortunately, the material let her down.
Madison seemed game to get silly, as evidenced by her commitment during "Barry the Midwife" or Please Don't Destroy's "Squidward" sketch, but very few of the ideas stuck the landing, resulting in an overall muddled viewing experience. Not Madison's fault, but she suffered nonetheless.
Delivered: Walton Goggins
Walton Goggins has become TV royalty over the pas few years, thanks to exemplary performances on Fallout, The Righteous Gemstones and The White Lotus. He's proven adept at playing eccentric characters, and he did not disappoint when it came time to do the same opposite a game SNL cast.
Goggins proved hilarious as the mysterious founding father in the "Second Amendment" sketch, and was aggressively sleazy in the "Mother's Day Brunch" routine, but he was just as adept at playing the punchline in Jane Wickline's baby shoe number. He even brought White Lotus buddy Sam Rockwell along to elevate the absurdity. Highlights galore here.
Underwhelmed: Bill Burr
Bill Burr is one of the best stand up comedians on the planet, and he has crushed SNL in the past, so hopes were high for his season 50 return. He did not meet these lofty expectations. The episode was the first to air following the U.S. Presidential Election, and there was a palpable uncertainty as to how much it should be referenced versus left alone. It didn't make for a particularly fun atmosphere.
It didn't help that the material was wildly inconsistent, ranging from surprisingly emotional ("Calling Dad") to tired and overly long ("Bald Guys," "The Janitor"). Not the worst episode of the season, not by a long shot, but one that did not live up to traditional Burr standards.