The 5 Worst Hosts of ‘Saturday Night Live’ Season 50
Saturday Night Live’s golden anniversary season was mediocre by most standards, trapped in a tired “Let’s open with Donald Trump!” format and weighed down by an overstuffed cast that never got enough regular reps to create great sketch comedy. But even with the bar set low, some of the season’s shows were worse than others, most often when the host failed to hit the mark. While Lady Gaga, Jack Black and Martin Short salvaged episodes through sheer force of energy and talent, others didn’t fare nearly so well.
Here are the five worst SNL hosting jobs of Season 50…
Mikey Madison
Could better comedy writing have saved Madison’s SNL debut? Probably, but you can say that about everyone on this list. Compare the manic comic energy of a Jack Black with the drowsy “I like horses” vibe that Madison gives off in her debut monologue. She’s not much better in sketches, playing different variations on “nice young woman.” The performance isn’t an all-time clunker, just eminently forgettable.
Charli XCX
SNL’s history with hosts who come from a mainly musical background isn’t great, although Ariana Grande pulled it off just a few weeks earlier. Charli XCX its in her monologue that many people in the audience might not have heard of her, and that’s part of the problem. Most of her monologue is built around the meme-y concept of Brat Summer, which by Thanksgiving already sounded hopelessly dated.
Charli XCX reprised Grande’s viral Domingo bit, but it only served to remind us that the sketch was better with a funnier host.
Paul Mescal
It doesn’t speak well of Mescal’s SNL hosting debut that I couldn’t a thing about it. Oh yeah, this was the one where Dana Carvey brought back Church Chat! (Mescal was nowhere near the sketch.)
Mescal at least looks excited to be in Studio 8H for his monologue, a speech in which he explains, “I’m not really known for comedy.” After hosting SNL, that reputation is intact.
Shane Gillis
The first time Gillis hosted SNL after getting his ass fired before he even got to Day One on the job, it was understandable why he was so nervous during his monologue. It’s unclear what his excuse was the second time around.
The flop sweat set in early, with several “jokes” poked at why the audience wasn’t laughing. The audience at home didn’t like it any better.
Jean Smart
This is the one that should have been a slam-dunk — a season-opener hosted by the award-winning actress who headlines a show about comedians. Instead, it was a belly flop. Smart coulda, shoulda, woulda been great — except she wasn’t. In fact, I was worried she was going to fall asleep during her lethargic opening number. Welcome to Season 50, folks.
Like excuses for an NBA player who falters in the playoffs, word leaked out after the show that Smart was sick leading up to the live performance, not even speaking during dress rehearsal to save her voice. The writers had to read her lines, reported LateNighter. Illness might have been the reason for the lackluster performance, but better to do an all-cast show with no host rather than one in which Smart seemed doped up on NyQuil.