Top 30 Worst SNL Hosts Ever

Although he first broke into Hollywood playing a sympathetic individual with developmental disabilities, Billy Bob Thornton has since gained a reputation for his more sinister roles. That dry, sleazy charm could have been comedy gold when he hosted “SNL” in 2001, but Thornton failed to use it to his advantage. Instead, he came across as disinterested, and his delivery failed to land with the audience. Maybe if he had been given more screen time, he could have turned it around, but Thornton was so invisible, you’d have thought he was a featured player in their first season. What could’ve been a great episode turned into a missed opportunity, which probably explains why we haven’t seen him back since.

In the ‘90s, there were few comedians as big as Martin Lawrence. His hit sitcom made him a household name, so you’d probably be surprised to know he’s only hosted “SNL” once. Well, that’s because this one appearance was very controversial. During his opening monologue, Lawrence veered off-script, delivering an uncomfortable tirade about female hygiene. It was so tasteless that reruns now edit it out completely, replacing it with disclaimers about how it landed “SNL” in trouble. It also got Lawrence banned from the show. Unfortunately, things didn’t get better as the episode progressed, as Lawrence stuck to his usual shtick, which quickly wore thin. Although the ban has been lifted, it’s unlikely we’ll see Lawrence return to host anytime soon.

Having athletes host “SNL” is always a gamble. For every Charles Barkley or Peyton Manning, there’s always a Deion Sanders waiting to drop the ball. Fresh off his 1995 Super Bowl win, Sanders made his debut at Studio 8H. Right off the bat, it was clear this was a horrible decision. Sanders’ monologue was painfully unfunny, setting the stage for a night of line flubs, cringe-worthy antics and flat-out terrible acting. The more the episode dragged on, the more unbearable it got. To top it off, Sanders then gave an atrocious performance of his rap songs, even though there was already a musical guest. It was as if “SNL” was trying to create reasons not to invite him back, and they absolutely nailed it.

It can be quite challenging for “SNL” hosts to make their mark on the show, especially when they’re sharing the stage with top-tier comedic talent. That seemed to be the case for actress and TV host Kelly Ripa. Despite her charm, Ripa couldn’t quite keep up with the cast’s energy, which only made her stick out like a sore thumb. This was even more glaring in the sketch where Amy Poehler nailed an impression of Ripa right in front of her. The rest of the night didn’t do her any favors, with material that barely gave her a chance to flex any comedic skills. She may be an experienced TV host, but this was one hosting gig where Ripa just didn’t shine.

The best hosts are those who fully embrace the writers’ ideas, let their guards down and just have fun. So you probably already understand why former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner made this list. According to then-writer Conan O’Brien, Steinbrenner was quick to reject many of the writers’ suggestions, insisting on only doing what he thought was funny. As a result, he barely appears in the episode, and when he does, the sketches are either bizarre, unfunny or downright inappropriate. The lowest point of the night was a sketch in which Steinbrenner plays a version of himself hitting on a reporter who tries to file a harassment complaint. It was the first and last time “SNL” saw Steinbrenner, and for good reason.

Chevy Chase remains one of “SNL’s” biggest success stories. After debuting as an original cast member, Chase left midway through the second season to launch a successful Hollywood career. However, nearly every time he returned to host, he managed to stir some trouble. In 1978, he and Bill Murray, who replaced him on the show, got into a heated argument that ended with punches. Then, in 1985, he reportedly uttered several homophobic remarks at Terry Sweeney, the show’s first openly gay male cast member. But the final straw came in 1997, when Chase hit Cheri Oteri in the head during rehearsals. This supposedly led producer Lorne Michaels to ban him from ever hosting the show again.

When he was tapped to host this Season 38 episode, Jeremy Renner set out to “make a jerk of [himself].” The mindset was right. But the execution? Not so much. From the moment he hit the stage, Renner looked so nervous, you’d wonder if he even showed up for the dress rehearsals at all. He never quite settled into any of the characters, spending more time not just reading the cue cards, but studying them like he was cramming for an exam. It certainly speaks volumes that his standout moment for the night was when he had to play within his comfort zone, in the “Avengers” parody sketch.

To say this episode has aged poorly would be putting it mildly. Back in 2005, when Lance Armstrong hosted this Season 31 installment, he had just won his seventh consecutive Tour de France title and was basking in international acclaim. Sure, doping rumors were floating around, but nothing was proven, and he even joked about it in his opening monologue. If that wasn’t awkward enough, the musical guest was his then-fiancée, Sheryl Crow, whom he declared he was “definitely” going to marry, only for them to split a few months later. Armstrong’s subsequent scandal has made this episode virtually unwatchable, but even if you set that aside, his stilted performance still makes it skippable anyway.

Believe it or not, there once was a time when Rudy Giuliani was the beloved mayor of New York City, celebrated for his leadership after 9/11. In November 1997, he even hosted an episode of “SNL,” which saw him poke fun at himself and the city. Giuliani seemed to be all in, even dressing up in drag as an Italian grandmother. But in hindsight, his hosting stint feels more like a calculated PR move to boost his national profile than anything else. Besides, most of the sketches just feature him being interviewed as himself, so there’s nothing groundbreaking here. Watching this now, it’s pretty striking how Giuliani went from being in on the joke to becoming the punchline.

When it was announced that multibillionaire Elon Musk would be hosting “SNL,” not everyone was thrilled. In fact, some cast members openly voiced their displeasure with the decision. And, as it turns out, their concerns weren’t exactly off the mark. Musk’s appearance was nothing more than an attempt to launder his public image. While he did put in some effort, he often looked completely out of place, as he transitioned from playing a creepy doctor to a creepy TV producer to – you guessed it – a creepy priest. Ironically, the best moments of the night were those that featured little to no Musk, and that alone speaks volumes. Let’s be real, no one needed this more than Musk himself.

UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey fought tooth and nail for laughs during her hosting stint in January 2016, but unfortunately, she isn’t as fast in front of a camera as she is in the ring. To be honest, “hosting” might not even be the right word for it. While she didn’t make an ass of herself, she barely appeared in the live sketches, and when she did, her acting was wooden and she didn’t really add anything. We can clearly see you looking at the cue cards, Ronda! Throw in a bland performance by Selena Gomez, and you had one of the worst episodes of season 41.

Frank Zappa may be a stellar musician, but a suitable host he is not. Zappa hosted way back in October of 1978, and he made a total fool of both himself and the show. While we understand that “SNL” is meant to be funny, there is still an expected level of professionalism, and Zappa did not adhere to it. He constantly broke the fourth wall and even addressed the cue cards, which resulted in his ban from the show. Zappa came across as an extremely uncomfortable and risky presence that could undermine the show at any moment, and the crew allegedly hated him for it.

The infamous Charles Grodin episode is a thing of “Saturday Night Live” legend. Grodin hosted took up hosting duties in October 1977, but awkwardly stumbled through his lines, improvised large swaths of content, and derailed sketches due to being blissfully unprepared for the show. Some say he missed rehearsals and bungled the night, and some say it was an Andy Kaufman-esque bit of meta humor that flew over everyone’s heads. It was a disaster either way, and few people found him funny or enjoyable. Kind of like Andy Kaufman himself a lot of the time.

Mentioning the Milton Berle episode to a cast member of the 1979 season may just give them unwanted flashbacks. Berle was allegedly a massive pain both in front of the camera and backstage. He had no qualms with completely taking over the show and tended to both hog the camera and upstage his fellow cast members. He also insisted on ad-libbing, made outdated jokes, including doing spit-takes. He then ended the show with a mushy performance of September Song and a pre-planned standing ovation, much to the anger of Lorne Michaels. In short, everyone involved seemingly hated him, and he was never invited back.

By the time MC Hammer hosted SNL on December 7, 1991, he was already dancing his way out of the zeitgeist. “U Can’t Touch This” was well behind him, and while “2 Legit 2 Quit” proved relatively successful, it wasn’t the Earth-shattering single that the former was. As a result, this episode reeked of a celebrity desperately trying to hold on to relevancy, especially when you consider that he was the musical guest as well. Unfortunately, he proved a bad host due to some wooden acting and making the odd decision to refer to himself in the third person. While he may be 2 legit 2 quit, he wasn’t 2 legit 2 fail.

January Jones is often considered to be one of the weakest links of the otherwise stellar cast of “Mad Men,” but you could argue that Betty Draper is meant to be rather emotionless and boring. However, even January’s most diehard fans had trouble defending her “SNL” hosting gig. She carried the show with the same bland personality. And while that may work for Betty, it doesn’t work for live comedy. If her rather uninspired live delivery wasn’t bad enough, she also stumbled over lines and showed audible confusion regarding the cameras. Critics thought she sucked the energy out of the show, earning her place in history as one of “SNL’s” most awkward personalities.

Who in the right mind thought that a civic rights activist and Baptist minister would make for a good “Saturday Night Live” host? Sharpton hosted the show while running for President on December 6, 2003, but just because someone is a Presidential candidate doesn’t mean they’re good at comedy. Politicians and Baptist ministers do not often make for good actors. As everyone predicted, it was generally a disaster, as Sharpton often looked bored and uncomfortable, and it came across as little more than a transparent campaign ad. His 2018 misspelling of “respect” was funnier than anything he did on “Saturday Night Live.”

Adrien Brody is a terrific case in proving that drama and live comedy require completely different talents. While Brody may be an acclaimed, Academy Award-winning actor, he is easily one of “Saturday Night Live’s” worst and most awkward hosts. While he wasn’t particularly funny throughout the whole show, it was his introduction of musical guest Sean Paul that really angered people. Brody allegedly went off-script and introduced Paul while wearing fake dreadlocks and a Jamaican accent, a joke that was not approved or even known about. To make matters worse, it proved to be unfunny and offensive. The joke reportedly got Brody banned from the show and he has since become a part of “SNL” legend.

Wayne Gretzky’s stint on “Saturday Night Live” was oddly reassuring. It reinforced the idea that everyone has flaws, and that even the all-time greats are human. Gretzky is often considered to be the greatest hockey player to ever lace up skates, yet he is certainly not an actor. And that’s putting it mildly. We suppose seeing him play hockey with Wayne and Garth was cool, but that’s the extent of this episode’s quality, which saw the sports legend noticeably glancing off-camera and delivering his lines and jokes with the enthusiasm of a brick wall. The episode is great as a time capsule, but certainly not as a funny hour of television.

Tom Green is certainly an acquired taste. The crass Green was invited to host back in November 2000 when he was at the height of his popularity, and it went about as poorly as you’d expect from the infamously odd performer. While we suppose the producers knew they were taking a risk when hiring the controversial comedian, it certainly didn’t pay off. Green brought his brand of low-brow, uncomfortable humor to the live sketch show, and the two types of comedy failed to mix. Next to his practiced sketch comedian co-stars, Green’s farcical approach to acting came across as childish and unfunny.

If there’s one celebrity primed to host “Saturday Night Live,” it’s the gut-busting, rip-roaring Casey Affleck. In case you can’t tell, we’re being sarcastic. To promote that hilarious movie “Manchester by the Sea,” Casey Affleck hosted the show in December 2016, and…well, it was the same old mumbly and deadpan Casey Affleck you’ve come to expect. While his reserved personality may work for dramatic movie roles, it isn’t a boon in sketch comedy. Besides the obvious standout Dunkin’ Donuts segment, Casey seemed completely out of his element and had little chemistry with the cast. Still, we must give him props for his self-deprecating monologue.

What makes Lindsay Lohan’s terrible hosting gig from 2012 so outlandish is that she’d already proven that she could do it well. Lohan had hosted “Saturday Night Live” three times going into this gig, so expectations were fairly high, despite the state of her career at the time. What could have been a big win for the actress instead went down as another missed opportunity. She had next to no energy throughout the night, and her line delivery was extremely stilted and boring. To make matters worse, it was clear that she was reading off cue cards. And, like anyone obviously reading from a card, Lohan was emotionless, stiff, and boring.

Andrew Dice Clay was a prominent stand-up comedian in the late 80s known for crude and sexist humor. To much fanfare, Clay took up the mantle of SNL host in May 1990, just eight months after he was banned from MTV. Both Nora Dunn and Sinead O’Connor refused to appear out of protest, and some viewers sent in hate mail and threats. But their fears were unwarranted, as Clay was painfully sanitized and blandly self-referential, which made for a dull host and also annoyed the comedian’s established fanbase. Like the failed opening of Capone’s vault, this was a national media event that instantly deflated.

Paris Hilton was a bit of a controversial pick, as many people were hesitant regarding her lack of acting or comedic experience. They were right to hesitate. Hilton was not only unfunny and incredibly unprofessional, but she was also allegedly a huge pain behind the scenes as well. Tina Fey told Howard Stern that Hilton took herself way too seriously and was “proud of how dumb she is.” She also told him that Hilton was just generally difficult.. You must be really unprofessional to have the otherwise sweet Tina Fey say something like that about you. Again… her words, not ours.

Louise Lasser was plastered all over the magazines of the mid-70s due to her role in the satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” However, she quickly left the show after exhausting herself and seemingly had a minor breakdown, getting busted for possessing cocaine and crawling around looking for drugs during SNL rehearsals. She was hated by Chevy Chase due to her apparent “solipsism” and constantly tried to back out of her obligations. The show itself was a sloppy and awkward piece of self-deprecating meta humor, and Lorne Michaels refused to have the episode rerun out of embarrassment.

We’re not adding Trump to this list solely because he’s Trump. People thought he was truly terrible on the show and so he earned the spot. Trump hosted the show twice, once in 2004 and again in 2015 while he was running for president. And while the episode garnered very high ratings, Trump simply couldn’t let go of his ego for an hour and have some fun. The episode seemed far too sterilized and pre-planned, as if the people in his team had vetoed 90% of the material the writers must have surely come up with. Critics also felt Trump made for a dreadful host due to his horrible comedic timing.

It’s no secret that athletes kind of suck as comedians, and while Wayne Gretzky was awful, he looks like Jim Carrey next to Michael Phelps. Oh boy, that Michael Phelps episode. He may be the fastest human to ever enter water, but he had the grace of a dump truck in front of the camera. Not only did he have no semblance of comedic timing, but he painfully stumbled through his lines and failed to read his cue cards on numerous occasions. The man is clearly not comfortable in live sketch comedy, and it made for an agonizingly awkward hour of television.

Let’s be honest here – that Nancy Kerrigan episode was a blatant ratings ploy, and nothing more. After being attacked by a hired man linked to rival Tonya Harding, the figure skater was national news, which the producers of “SNL” decided was a good enough reason to have her host. It definitely wasn’t, as the episode demonstrated.. She was a horrible actress and comedian who lacked both timing and charisma, and she looked supremely uncomfortable the entire time, almost as if she was internally questioning why she was there. We were - and still are - wondering the same thing.

While it may have been popular to hate on Bieber in 2013, we like to think that viewers kept an open mind when it came to his hosting of “Saturday Night Live.” However, even the most open-minded viewers must admit that his gig was horrific. Bieber acted like he was the hottest thing on the planet and came across as if he did not care at all about his performance or his cast members’ comfort. Bill Hader allegedly called out Bieber’s diva behavior, deeming him difficult to get along with and singling out his enormous entourage who doted on his every move.

Action stars don’t often make for great comedians. However, that didn’t stop “SNL” from hiring Steven Seagal as host back in 1991. Seagal was never known for his acting chops, and sadly, when taking the spotlight on “SNL,” he didn’t surprise anyone. Bad acting is one thing, but he was an alleged pain in the butt behind the scenes. He apparently complained about not understanding the jokes that were given to him, pitched terrible and inappropriate sketch ideas, and was reportedly rude to both the cast and writers. When it comes to horrible “SNL” hosts, no one competes with the boring and misguided mess that was Steven Seagal.