Saturday Night Live has introduced its unique brand of late-night humor to our screens since 1975. Over the show's 47 seasons, there's no denying that Saturday Night Live has had many stellar hosts over the years, and fans have witnessed some so-so performances as well. Most people who host Saturday Night Live are actors, for obvious reasons, but sometimes, you get a host who is a musician, or on a rare occasion, a politician. Then there are the athletes. No matter what they're good at, I'm sure each of them has an incredible sense of humor. They all bring us the most memorable shows.
Now, let's see who has made the most appearances, who are the surprising regulars, and who has been banned from SNL.
#1 Paul Simon (October 18, 1975; November 20, 1976; May 10, 1986; December 19, 1987)
He's a musical genius who has composed some of the most well-known pop songs of all time. Paul Simon, on the other hand, is also known to have been an integral part of the history of SNL. Paul Simon, a longtime friend of executive producer Lorne Michaels, has hosted SNL four times and appeared as a musical guest eight times. He's also made a number of special appearances on the show.
#2 Candice Bergen (November 8, 1975; December 20, 1975; December 11, 1976; November 21, 1987; May 19, 1990)
Candice Bergen is most known for her role as famous newswoman Murphy Brown on TV, but she is also a decorated SNL veteran, having hosted the program five times between 1975 and 1990, when she was at the height of her Murphy Brown fame.
#3 Fran Tarkenton (January 29, 1977)
Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940) is a former quarterback for the National Football League in the United States (NFL). He spent the majority of his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings, where he played for 18 seasons.
#4 Tom Hanks (December 14, 1985; February 20, 1988; October 8, 1988; February 17, 1990; December 8, 1990; May 9, 1992; September 28, 1996; May 6, 2006; October 22, 2016)
He is regarded as one of the most beloved and respected actors of all time. Some may credit Tom Hanks' street cred to his roles as Forrest Gump and Woody in Toy Story, but I believe we can thank Saturday Night Live.
#5 Christopher Walken (January 20, 1990; October 24, 1992; January 13, 1996; April 8, 2000; May 19, 2001; February 22, 2003; April 5, 2008)
Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter), an Academy Award winner, is also willing to send up his quirky mannerisms and screen persona as a bit of a kook. This has been a huge hit on Saturday Night Live. Walken has hosted the show a total of seven times, the most recent of which was in 2008.
#6 Rudolph Giuliani (November 22, 1997)
When Giuliani was the mayor of New York City in 1997, he hosted the show. He's made a lot of "worst SNL hosts" lists because he lacked the comic talents to carry off his performance. Despite this, he has appeared on the show twice since 2001, the first in 2001 and the second in 2008.
#7 Justin Timberlake (October 11, 2003; December 16, 2006; May 9, 2009; May 21, 2011; March 9, 2013)
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The pop star and actor is the star of a number of recurring sketches that never fail to make people laugh, including "Barry Gibb Talk Show" and its numerous sequels, as well as everything he's done with Andy Samberg. Justin Timberlake has firmly established himself as the quintessential host of Saturday Night Live for the current generation.
#8 Adrien Brody (May 10, 2003)
In 2003, the Academy Award winner only hosted SNL once. He infamously improvised his introduction for then-musical guest, Jamaican reggae singer Sean Paul, in addition to his terrible performance across skits. Brody appeared on the red carpet with fake dreadlocks and a Jamaican accent. He was then banned from ever hosting another episode of the show.
#9 Peyton Manning (March 24, 2007)
He’s only hosted SNL once, but recently retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning knocked it out of the park on the show—proving himself to be the best athlete to ever host the program. Fresh off his first Super Bowl win in 2007, Peyton Manning hosted SNL and it was one of the best episodes in recent memory.
#10 Lindsay Lohan (May 1, 2004; May 21, 2005; April 15, 2006; March 3, 2012)
The former child star has hosted SNL four times in total. She initially appeared on stage in 2004, and then again in 2005, 2006, and 2012. Lohan starred on Weekend Update alongside Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as a sexualized Hermione Granger.
#11 Donald Trump (April 3, 2004; November 7, 2015)
Trump first hosted SNL in 2004 and then again in 2015, just before he won the 2016 presidential election. Both of his performances were criticized for being too safe and failing to depart from his regular Trump image.
#12 Paris Hilton (February 5, 2005)
In the 30th season of Saturday Night Live, the heiress was cast as a host. Hilton appeared in a panned episode of Saturday Night Live in 2005 and is frequently included among the worst SNL hosts of all time.
#13 Betty White (May 8, 2010)
Betty White demonstrated that age ain't nothing but a number when she hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time in 2010. White, who was 88 at the time, was recognized as one of the best hosts the show had ever seen as she joked around with the likes of Fey, Poehler, and Maya Rudolph.
#14 Emma Stone (October 23, 2010; November 12, 2011; December 3, 2016; April 13, 2019)
Emma Stone had great comic abilities in her previous appearances in Superbad and Easy A before becoming the Academy Award-winning star of La La Land and The Favorite. When she took over as host of Saturday Night Live in 2010, she brought those abilities with her with ease.
#15 Larry David (February 6, 2016; November 4, 2017)
In February 2016, the Seinfeld co-creator hosted SNL for the first time after unveiling his beloved Bernie Sanders portrayal in a 2015 episode. For a sketch dubbed "Bern Your Enthusiasm," he imitated the Vermont senator once more, imagining life on the campaign road as an episode of
Curb Your Enthusiasm. David wrote for Saturday Night Live from 1984 to 1985, however, just one of his skits was actually broadcast.
#16 Ronda Rousey (January 23, 2016)
Rousey chose to try her hand at acting once she rose to prominence in the MMA world. However, most of them were action movies. She was rumored to be starring in a "Road House" revival, but it never happened. Because acting and sketch comedy didn't work out, she decided to pursue a career in professional wrestling.
#17 Ariana Grande (March 12, 2016)
The singer's first performance on SNL was as a musical guest in 2014, and she returned nearly two years later to host and perform. She nailed her
Jennifer Lawrence imitation and demonstrated her vocal impressions of Shakira and
Celine Dion throughout her tenure as a presenter.
#18 Donald Glover (May 5, 2018)
In 2018, the Community alum hosted SNL for the first and only time, while also performing as his musical alter ego, Childish Gambino. He received a lot of applause for his hosting duties, which included a spoof of A Quiet Place focused on Kanye West's antics.
#19 Harry Styles (November 16, 2019)
In November 2019, the "Watermelon Sugar" singer served as both host and musical guest. He portrayed a social media manager named Sara Lee in a popular skit called "Sara Lee," in which he got in trouble for mixing up his personal and business Instagram accounts.
#20 Kim Kardashian (October 9, 2021)
Though some were startled to see the inventor of Skims named as a season 47 host, Kardashian demonstrated her comedic abilities with a scorched-earth monologue that mocked her mother and sisters, as well as ex Kanye West and her stepfather Caitlyn Jenner.