SNL's Five Timer's Club

''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is a late-night sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. It premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the title ''NBC's Saturday Night''. The show usually satirizes contemporary American popular culture and politics, and it has featured a wide array of hosts and musical guests. ''SNL'' features a two-tiered cast: the repertory members, also known as the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players", and newer cast members, known as "Featured Players." A typical episode of ''SNL'' features a guest host, who delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast. While the format also features a musical guest, and many episodes feature celebrity cameos, the focus of the show is the guest host.

George Carlin hosted the show on its premiere episode. Three episodes later, Candice Bergen became the first female host and she was the first to host a second time later in 1975. Guests who host five times become members of the Five-Timers Club, introduced on the December 8, 1990 episode, when Tom Hanks became the seventh person to host their fifth episode. Actor Alec Baldwin holds the record for most times hosting, having done so seventeen times since 1990; Baldwin took the record from actor Steve Martin who has hosted sixteen times since 1976.

Several former cast members have returned to take on hosting duties. Original cast member Chevy Chase has hosted the most times, eight in total. Tina Fey follows behind, having hosted six times, while Bill Murray and Will Ferrell have hosted five times. On December 11, 1982, Eddie Murphy became the only person to host while still a member of the cast, filling the role at the last minute when the scheduled host (his '' 48 Hours'' co-star Nick Nolte) became ill. Multiple former writers have also returned to host: Conan O'Brien (one in 2001), Louis C.K. (four since 2012), Larry David (twice since 2016) and John Mulaney (six since 2018).

Musical guests can be solo acts or bands, who perform two to three musical numbers. Dave Grohl is the most frequent musical guest, performing on sixteen shows since 1992. There have been 47 episodes on which the show's host also served as the musical guest; the first was Paul Simon on the second episode on October 18, 1975. The most recent to pull double duty was Lady Gaga on March 8th, 2025. The Rolling Stones are the only band to ever serve as both host and musical guest during the same episode, which aired October 7, 1978.

In 1982, at age 7, Drew Barrymore became the youngest person to host the show. Betty White is the oldest person to host, having done so at 88 years of age in 2010; several cast members were on standby to replace her if she became fatigued but she appeared through the whole show as planned. In 2000, singer Britney Spears was the youngest person to both host and simultaneously serve as the show's musical guest, at 18 years and 161 days old.

In addition to making cameo appearances, political figures have also hosted the show. Donald Trump, who hosted in 2004 (promoting '' The Apprentice'') and in 2015 as a presidential hopeful, is the only host who eventually became President of the United States. Al Gore hosted in 2002, the only former vice president to do so. Former, current, or future presidential candidates who have hosted include Ralph Nader (1977), Jesse Jackson and George McGovern (both 1984), Paul Simon (1988), Steve Forbes (1996), Rudy Giuliani (1997), John McCain (2002), and Al Sharpton (2003). Sarah Palin appeared on ''SNL'' in 2008 after weeks of Tina Fey doing impressions of her on the show. In more recent years, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Nikki Haley appeared on the show during their presidential campaigns in 2016, 2020 and 2024, respectively. In November 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the last pre-election episode alongside Maya Rudolph, who portrayed her on the show. The episode also featured Virginia Senator and former candidate for Vice President Tim Kaine.

List of guests

Five-Timers Club

History

The Five-Timers Club is the group of performers who have hosted ''SNL'' at least five times. ''SNL'' first mentioned the Club on December 8, 1990, when Tom Hanks said that it was his fifth appearance as host in his monologue:

After Hanks delivered his monologue, the show segued to a sketch set in a richly appointed private club, featuring Hanks and Five-Timers Steve Martin, Elliott Gould, and Paul Simon, who had actually only served as host four times. Then-writer Conan O'Brien appeared in a cameo as a doorman.

Chevy Chase was the first former ''SNL'' cast member to both host the show and join the Five-Timers Club. This was subsequently done by Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and Kristen Wiig. Martin Short joined this list upon hosting on December 21, 2024. Mulaney is the second former writer to join the Five-Timers Club, as Fey was the head writer as well as a cast member. The Five-Timers Club was next mentioned when Danny DeVito was inducted in 1993. The mark featured on the show when reached by hosts John Goodman (1994), Alec Baldwin (1994), Christopher Walken (2001), Drew Barrymore (2007), Justin Timberlake (2013), Ben Affleck (2013), Scarlett Johansson (2017), Melissa McCarthy (2017), Dwayne Johnson (2017), Jonah Hill (2018), Paul Rudd (2021), John Mulaney (2022), Woody Harrelson (2023), Emma Stone (2023), Kristen Wiig (2024), and Martin Short (2024).

In 2006, a sketch featuring Steve Martin and Baldwin introduced the ''Platinum Lounge'', featuring only hosts that have hosted the show at least twelve times, on the occasion of Baldwin's 13th time hosting the show (Steve Martin had hosted 14 times at the time). Martin Short appeared as a waiter, as he would during many subsequent Five-Timers Club sketches. Since then, John Goodman has become the third person to host more than twelve times. The club has been spoofed by ''SNL'' itself. During her fourth appearance as host in April 2019, Emma Stone anticipated "Four-Timers Club" honors in her monologue. Paul Rudd was the next person to host for the fifth time, although his show was affected due to the rise of Omicron cases, which resulted in a reduced cast and no audience.

Jonah Hill was taken to the Club by Five-Timer Tina Fey. Once in, he is greeted by Candice Bergen, and Drew Barrymore. Seeing no men in the club, Hill wonders if it's "Ladies Night". He is told by Fey that the other men "are not allowed in right now" because of presumed harassment problems. During her fifth monologue, Kristin Wiig is welcomed by multiple former hosts appearing in Five Timers jackets despite not being members, including Martin Short (hosted four times), Matt Damon (two times), Fred Armisen (once), Jon Hamm (three times), Will Forte (once), and Ryan Gosling (twice; he hosted his third episode the following week), who presented Wiig with the jacket. Actual club member Paul Rudd also appeared alongside former SNL writer Paula Pell and producer Lorne Michaels.

Episodes

Membership

Guest Performances

During its first 12 seasons (1975-1987), ''SNL'' frequently featured guest performances from standups, magicians, and other unusual entertainers who would do their own act on the stage in between sketches. This variety show element was lost as the show made the cast the focus. Jack Black and Kyle Gass's comedy band Tenacious D is the only act to perform in one of these slots on the show since the 1980s.

See also

* List of ''Saturday Night Live'' cast members
* List of ''Saturday Night Live'' writers
* List of ''Saturday Night Live'' episodes

Notes

References

Bibliography

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Guests