This Is The Worst SNL Host Of All Time

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 17, 11:49AM EST · Published Jan 16, 8:30AM EST

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Saturday Night Live is among the longest-running shows in TV history. Started by Lorne Michaels, who remains the producer to this day, it has launched the careers for dozens of comics.

After the kick-off of its first installment in 1975, it quickly created stars that include Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner. Cast member Eddie Murphy joined in 1980 and has become among the largest box office draws in American cinema. A few years later among the featured players were Mike Myers and Adam Sandler. Sandler went on to have another massive movie career as well.

SNL has also become a profit machine for NBC. By one estimate, it brings the network well in excess of $100 million a year.

To determine the worst SNL host of all time, 24/7 Tempo reviewed audience ratings and other data for all Saturday Night Live episodes from the Internet Movie Database. SNL hosts were ranked based on an index composed of two elements: the average IMDb user rating for all episodes hosted by a guest and the total number of episodes hosted by that guest. Average user ratings were calculated using the number of user votes as a weight. While the average user rating for each host was given full weight in the index, the number of episodes hosted by each guest was given a half-weighting. IMDb ratings data was collected on Dec. 29, 2021.

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Guest hosts have been comedians, singers, politicians, future presidents, sports figures, actors and reality-show stars. When a guest host clicks, it’s usually because he or she is able to poke fun at themselves, is on the same page with the comedy troupe, and enjoys the process of doing sketch comedy.

Sometimes a guest host doesn’t have the best comedy material to work with, and if they aren’t primarily a comedy performer, they don’t have the ability to save a sketch. But there have been cringeworthy guest hosts who have been their own worst enemy.

Business and future president Donald J. Trump appeared twice on “Saturday Night Live” and balked at sketches that poked fun at him.

Since its beginning, “Saturday Night Live” has taken chances with its programming, and picking the guest host has always been a part of what keeps the show relevant.

The worst host of SNL was Donald Trump. Here are the details:

> Avg. episode rating: 3.4/10 (856 votes)
> Appearances as host: 2 (Apr. 3, 2004 to Nov. 7, 2015)
> Lowest-rated episode: S41, Ep4 (Musical guest: Sia)

Click here to read: The Worst SNL Hosts Of All Time.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.