15 Best First-Time Hosts Of Saturday Night Live

Richard Pryor is widely considered one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time. As Rolling Stone put it in their list of the 50 best stand-up comics (in which Pryor ranked number one), "Pryor put everything he was on display," from condemnations of police brutality to his own personal, fiery scandals. Given the comedian's reputation, he was the perfect fit to host "Saturday Night Live" early in its run, contributing his brand of provocative humor to the fledgling political satire of NBC's latest hit show. 

Pryor hosted Episode 7 of Season 1 of "Saturday Night Live," following a hosting lineup that included the likes of George Carlin and Lily Tomlin. Even though the show consisted of top-notch comedic writing talent, including Dan Aykroyd, Anne Beatts, and Al Franken, Pryor's condition for hosting was bringing along his personal writing partner Paul Mooney, who penned the episode's highlight — a sketch titled "Word Association" starring Richard Pryor alongside the show's Season 1 breakout star Chevy Chase.

In the now-iconic sketch, Chase is interviewing Pryor for a job, requesting a game of word association that slowly turns into a tennis match of racial epithets between the two. The only thing better than Pryor's performance in the sketch is the audience's reaction to how risky "SNL" was willing to be in its first season. Even "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels considers the sketch a turning point in the show's history, telling The New York Times, "It put us on the map."

"Saturday Night Live" has not shied away from inviting athletes to flex their comedy muscles. Peyton and Eli Manning have both made appearances on the program, as well as sports superstars like Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and even Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce following his Super Bowl victory. However, one of the greatest athletes of all time, Michael Jordan, only made one hosting appearance on the show in 1991, the same year he won his first of three consecutive NBA titles.

Fortunately, Michael Jordan's likability among basketball fans was echoed by those who worked at "Saturday Night Live." According to cast member David Spade, Jordan was the type of host who was game to do anything, which is a stance quite beloved by comedy writers. One comedy writer who got a lot of mileage out of Jordan was Al Franken, a writer and featured player on the show who became known for his character Stuart Smalley, host of the self-help program "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley." 

In this edition of "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley," Smalley coaches Jordan on having a positive outlook on his life as a basketball player, even when he might not feel good enough. Jordan, suppressing laughter from Franken's committed performance, looks at himself in a mirror and repeats the mantra: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!" For a man years away from making basketball history, perhaps Smalley's encouragement was all he needed to succeed.

Taylor Swift was only 19 when she was the host and musical guest of "Saturday Night Live," though it couldn't have come at a more ideal time for the burgeoning superstar. She was a few months away from winning album of the year at the Grammys for the first time for her second record, "Fearless," an honor she'd go on to achieve two more times in her career. Nevertheless, her appearance on "SNL" as a teenager cemented her as an icon not only to audiences but to her fellow castmates on "SNL."

Notably, a highlight of Swift's episode was her "Monologue Song," which she wrote herself commenting on various rumors and scandals, including her breakup with Joe Jonas, her relationship with Taylor Lautner, and Kanye West's infamous interruption of her at the VMAs. As Seth Meyers recounted years later, a host writing their own monologue is extremely rare, but they ended up using what she wrote for the live show. Bill Hader also sang her praises in "Live From New York," citing her as a host whose comedic talents surprised him. 

Among Swift's other appearances throughout the episode included a Digital Short parodying the "Twilight" trailer that features Hader as Frankenstein's monster and another that sees her donning headgear to play a teenager describing unsafe parent driving habits. Although Swift has appeared on "SNL" three additional times as a musical guest, plus a brief cameo in the 40th-anniversary special, she has yet to return as host again.

By the time Jennifer Lawrence hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2013, she had already been cemented as an iconic young movie star. She made her breakthrough in the 2010 drama "Winter's Bone," garnering her critical acclaim and even her first Oscar nomination. She was later launched into mainstream stardom playing Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" film adaptations, as well as playing Mystique in 2011's "X-Men: First Class." Finally, Lawrence's "SNL" debut came just before she won an Academy Award for her performance in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Unfortunately, critics weren't in love with Jennifer Lawrence's debut right from the get-go. As an article for Vulture claimed, "The writers seemed reluctant to challenge Lawrence with their material," resulting in an episode that many at the time felt fell flat. However, to the benefit of the soon-to-be-Oscar winner, hindsight would work in her favor on this particular episode, which is filled with quite a few good sketches that showcase her comedic gifts.

One of those sketches is "50s Diner," where Lawrence plays an insult waitress whose jabs at two customers are quite mean-spirited. There's also "Hunger Games Press Conference," reimagining the characters in a sports-like Q&A with colorfully-dressed journalists inquiring about their performance in the dystopian free-for-all. Ultimately, her most whimsical performance of the show comes in "Top Dog Chef," featuring her and the other cast members dressed as dogs competing in a cooking competition who become agitated by a sudden doorbell chime. 

Donald Glover's history with "Saturday Night Live" is quite complicated. The multi-hyphenate started out in comedy with his NYU sketch troupe "Derrick Comedy," uploading their often racey sketches onto YouTube, where they gained viral recognition. Glover was later hired as a writer on "30 Rock" before being cast on the NBC sitcom "Community," but before that, he auditioned twice for "Saturday Night Live" and didn't make the cut. After a successful music career as Childish Gambino, as well as creating and starring in the FX series "Atlanta," Glover finally returned to the show that wouldn't welcome him.

In his musical monologue, Glover is appropriately bitter about his failed auditions before launching into one of the strongest hosting debuts of the 2010s. He co-wrote his first sketch, playing a lawyer representing Jurassic Park with a performance that harkens back to his most absurd "Derrick Comedy" pieces. Other standouts include the groovy yet creepy "'80s Music Video" and "A Kanye Place," the latter parodying "A Quiet Place" with characters reacting to Kanye's then-outlandish actions. 

However, for all of Glover's preparation to excel at the sketch show, his biggest performance of the night was pulling double duty as the musical guest under Childish Gambino. Although his first song of the night was the R&B banger "Saturday," which later appeared in his short film "Guava Island," the night climaxed with his debut of "This is America," which was released during the episode's airing and later reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

David Harbour hosted "Saturday Night Live" in late 2019, coming off the release of "Stranger Things" Season 3 on Netflix the previous and playing Hellboy in the 2019 reboot, which ended up being a box office bomb. Still, the actor risked it all to step into the halls of 30 Rock to host "SNL," though this time he left an indelible mark on the long-running NBC show. 

If it wasn't clear enough from Harbour's role as Jim Hopper on "Stranger Things," the actor was willing to leave it all on stage. For instance, there's the "SoulCycle" sketch consisting of a rotating cast of unqualified but deeply passionate SoulCycle instructors, which finds Harbour showing off some energetic screaming to really inspire the SoulCycle participants. There's also "Peter, Paula, and Murray," a musical sketch with Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant playing a trio of folk musicians admitting to some pretty heinous actions in their past, as well as "Sauce," where he blew the audience away as an over-enthusiastic Italian grandmother. 

However, the highlight of the night for many was "Grouch," a parody of the film "Joker" featuring Harbour as Oscar the Grouch from "Sesame Street." After the episode aired, The Washington Post asked, "When does this masterpiece hit theaters?" What's even more surprising than the sketch's success is its origin, as Harbour himself pitched the idea to writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, proving his sketch chops weren't a fluke. 

Zoë Kravitz had a pretty stellar 2022, kicked off by starring as Catwoman in Matt Reeves' superhero blockbuster "The Batman" alongside Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight. Despite being a young performer, Kravitz's "Saturday Night Live" hosting debut was far too late following her critically acclaimed roles in the "Fantastic Beasts" film series, HBO's "Big Little Lies," and the short-lived Hulu series "High Fidelity." 

By the time she finally appeared as a host in 2022, it was clear that Zoë Kravitz was hiding an incredible comedic side that "SNL" was desperately in need of. The A.V. Club, in particular, singled out several of her highlights, including a commercial for Amazon Go featuring suspicious African-American patrons and the frustrating game show "Word Crunch," where Kravitz keeps finding a disturbing number of risque words. Audiences definitely also enjoyed Kravitz performing a maid-of-honor speech gone wrong supported by great writing.

All in all, Kravitz excelled when the writers of "Saturday Night Live" let her get weird. She also appeared with the "Please Don't Destroy" crew of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, helping the trio find a missing cat with the help of her "The Batman" co-star Paul Dano. 

Season 48 turned out to be a stellar showcase for first-time hosts, including Pedro Pascal, Michael B. Jordan, and Jenna Ortega. However, the season wasn't been without its bittersweet moments, such as Cecily Strong saying goodbye to her status as the longest-tenured cast member in "Saturday Night Live" history. Thankfully, there was no better host to help wish her the best of luck than Austin Butler, who was Oscar-nominated for his uncanny portrayal of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film "Elvis." 

Specifically, Butler shed the costumes and comedy to croon Elvis's song "Blue Christmas" at the end of the show as a tribute to Cecily, joined by her fellow cast-mates, including Colin Jost and Kenan Thompson. Unlike many other hosts, this moment showed how close Butler had gotten with the "SNL" cast in his short week there, which The New York Times recalled as the moment when "the tears came." The rest of Butler's performances that night just went to show how perfect of a fit he was at "Saturday Night Live."

For instance, there's his encounter with the "Please Don't Destroy" trio as they try to pitch him on plastic clothing or his hilarious reaction to getting a gift stolen at a white elephant Christmas party in another sketch. Perhaps his biggest, show-stopping performance of the night was as an elderly woman going wild for Sarah Sherman as "Jewish Elvis." Even though Butler was a first-time host, he felt right at home with the cast.