The best of ‘SNL.’ The worst of ‘SNL.’ It’s time to rank the hosts of Season 49.

Welcome to the final edition of Deep SNL Thoughts for Saturday Night Live Season 49. Before we head into a summer break, let’s take a few moments to see how this season’s hosts performed.

Season 49 wound up having twenty episodes, which while a nice, round number, is actually an episode short when compared to SNL seasons airing without an outside interruption. We got eighteen episodes last year after Season 48 ended three episodes early with the beginning of the WGA strike. The pandemic also lead to Season 45 having eighteen episodes and Season 46 having twenty episodes.)

As you scroll through the rankings, you might notice that the sketches I’ve highlighted as the best one from each episode might not match the ones I gave that honor to in Deep SNL Thoughts. You’re correct. For a few of these episodes, the passage of time has given me the chance to revisit which sketches stuck with me. (And in Nate Bargatze’s case, which sketch I realized I failed to highlight the second I hit publish on that edition.)

OK, let’s see how the twenty people who hosted SNL this season did, starting with the season’s worst host ...