Who has been the best Saturday Night Live host of season 49 so far? Fans sound off

By Christina Izzo
published

Former cast member Kate McKinnon was the final SNL host of 2023, but how does she stack up to the rest of this season's hosts?

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- “Kate McKinnon, Billie Eilish” Episode 1852 -- Pictured: (l-r) Musical guest Billie Eilish, SNL host Kate McKinnon, and Ego Nwodim during Promos in Studio 8H on Thursday, December 14, 2023
(Image credit: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC)

Saturday Night Live aired its final episode of 2023 on Saturday, December 16, with SNL alum Kate McKinnon returning to Studio 8H as a first-time host and Billie Eilish as musical guest. We've still got plenty of Saturday Night Live season 49 to go—the sketch show will return with Saltburn–slash–Priscilla star Jacob Elordi hosting and Reneé Rapp performing on January 20, 2024—but already SNL diehards are debating which of the first batch of hosts has been the best so far this season. 

McKinnon left the comedy series back in 2022 after season 47 and since then has gone on to star as "Weird Barbie" in the summer blockbuster Barbie. (Eilish, of course, contributed the Grammy-nominated track "What Was I Made For?" to that film's soundtrack.) 

For her big return to SNL, the actress-comedian was joined by fellow show veterans Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig for several musical bits, including the opening monologue—where they sweetly harmonized to "I'll Be Home For Christmas"—a country-folk number about "tampon farms" and an Abba Christmas album infomercial. It was a spirited episode, but was it enough to put McKinnon at the top of the list where SNL hosts are concerned? 

If you want to catch up on episodes past and judge the hosts for yourself, you can stream Saturday Night Live on-demand via Peacock, which adds new episodes the day after they air. And if you want to watch future episodes live, the sketch show airs Saturdays at 11:30pm ET on NBC, so anyone with a traditional cable subscription or TV antenna can tune in to their local NBC station. A number of live TV streaming services also carry NBC, including Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV. 

Fans debate who's the best SNL host of season 49:

SNL fans took to social media to crown their chosen "best host" of season 49. Some praised McKinnon's edition, calling it the "best SNL episode of the season, not even close." 

Others loved the November 11 episode with Wonka star Timothée Chalamet pulling hosting duties, citing his "Man in the Moon skit and opening baby face song." 

Some preferred Adam Driver as host, calling the Ferrari actor "the perfect SNL host, the best of his generation." 

And others tweeted in favor of Emma Stone, who hosted the December 2 edition of the show. One fan said the Poor Things lead was "one of, if not the best, modern SNL hosts." 

So, who has been your favorite SNL host this season so far? Has it been one of the aforementioned talents or maybe another entirely, like Jason Momoa, Pete Davidson, Bad Bunny or Nate Bargatze?

Christina Izzo
Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York. 

When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere.