Saturday Night Live has many constants. You can always bet on at least one cast member to break character, an absurd 10-to-1 sketch, and a lopsided ratio of male hosts to female hosts.
In its 50-year history, SNL has booked men as hosts for almost 70 percent of its episodes. Only three seasons have even tied in representation—and the last instance was more than 20 years ago. This landmark 50th season has been more of the same, as only three of 12 episodes thus far have had a female host. The last season to have 10 or more female hosts was Season 41, while men have hosted at least 10 episodes in every full season in the show’s history.
It’s not a blip or bug. It’s ingrained into the SNL ethos—and it desperately needs to change.
Consider that women have given SNL so many of its modern breakout moments, from the Domingo sketch to Lisa from Temecula. Women are the backbone of SNL, and it’s a wild disservice to continue sidelining them year-after-year.
Ariana Grande’s October hosting stint delivered the show its highest ratings since 2021 (later usurped by John Mulaney’s pre-election episode where Kamala Harris cameoed), with the aforementioned bridesmaids sketch hitting 16 million views on YouTube and finding massive virality on TikTok. Its popularity reached the point that cast member Marcello Hernandez (Domingo) portrayed the character at a Sabrina Carpenter concert. The smash success sketch has already been reprised in the only episode since Grande’s to have a female host (Charli XCX).
The simple truth is women have carried SNL for much of its history, dating all the way back to the beginning, from Gilda Radner to Cecily Strong and all the Vanessa Bayers inbetween. And when former SNL stars return to the stage, they’re able to make immense waves. Few impressions have stood out as much as Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin and Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, both Emmy-award winning. The women of SNL have more than doubled the men in Emmy nominations this millennium, in fact.
The Rudolph/Harris pre-election cold open is still one of the 50th season’s biggest moments, with Rudolph’s impression eclipsing the platform to become almost as recognizable as Harris herself. Meanwhile, past impressions like Cheri Oteri’s Barbara Walters and Kristen Wiig’s Target Lady remain impenetrable in the zeitgeist, popping up in commercials and even New Year’s specials.
As the sketch comedy’s historic 50th anniversary special approaches, NBCUniversal has utilized the massive popularity of female stars on platforms like The View and Watch What Happens Live, despite shafting women on the main stage.
Certainly, SNL values women enough to garner viral moments and publicity. So why does such a vast hosting disparity exist to this day? SNL has evolved too far beyond its boys club beginnings to continue such a ridiculous bias. It’s simply bad business, perpetuating the age-old, misogynistic myth that women aren’t as funny as men.
After all, SNL has routinely escaped this bias with its musical guests, with multiple recent seasons seeing female acts outnumber male performers. SNL is happy to give women the mic, so long as it’s not to deliver a monologue, evidently.
The bar of entry for women is simply too high on SNL, with the casting department ignoring female athletes and stand-ups while platforming men of the exact same caliber. To host SNL as a woman, you essentially need an Emmy, Oscar, or Grammy—preferably all three.
As the late-night staple steps into its next 50 years, it’s time to make a change, lest it risk being left behind. This platform is too important to continue sidelining such talent, especially as women regularly make up the majority of TV viewing audiences.
Come Sunday, stars like Miley Cyrus, Ayo Edebiri, and Scarlett Johansson will help SNL celebrate the biggest night in its history. Will it be business as usual after that, or will SNL finally step into the modern age?
It’s not simply about filling some quota, but meeting the moment. Maybe a show more ready to do so wouldn’t have had a milquetoast comedian lead its post-election episode with a condescending monologue about women’s shortcomings, while the man remains wholly unaffected by the uncertainty of the second Trump administration.
It’s satire, sure, but tugging low-hanging fruit in the name of mild provocation is as tired as it is trite, especially as the show—that gleefully platformed Trump, while ceding the 2016 and 2020 post-election hosting gigs to noted transphobe Dave Chappelle—so consistently shows itself to support the disparity it satirizes.
At this point, SNL is no better than its tongue-in-cheek “sketch for the women” suggested. There’s a grain of truth in every joke, isn’t there?
