SNL Horse Race Roundup: Week 5

Well, for the Halloween episode, there wasn’t a whole lot of Halloween. And for the Jon Hamm episode, there wasn’t a whole lot of Jon Hamm. Not enough! But this week there were a lot of sketches driven by only one or two major characters, unlike last week where we saw a lot of ensemble sketches. And Rihanna was in another “Shy Ronnie” Digital Short. So those are good? Those are at least things that are true. In any case, let’s get to the numbers:

Repertory Players

Fred Armisen

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 2 (Vincent Price’s Halloween Special, Back to the Future Screen Tests)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: Garth & Kat

Abby Elliott

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 3 (Casting Today, Back to the Future Screen Tests, I Didn’t Ask for This)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Bill Hader

-Major Characters: 1 (Vincent Price’s Halloween Special)

-Minor Appearances: 3 (Monologue, Back to the Future Screen Tests, I Didn’t Ask for This)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: James Carville

Bobby Moynihan

-Major Characters: 1 (I Didn’t Ask for This)

-Minor Appearances: 2 (Digital Short, Back to the Future Screen Tests)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Andy Samberg

-Major Characters: 1 (Digital Short)

-Minor Appearances: 2 (Monologue, Back to the Future Screen Tests)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Jason Sudeikis

-Major Characters: 3 (Cold Open, Casting Today, Highway Cops)

-Minor Appearances: 0

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

-Bonus: Said “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Kenan Thompson

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 3 (Monologue, Back to the Future Screen Tests, Highway Cops)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Kristen Wiig

-Major Characters: 2 (Casting Today, Darlique & Barney)

-Minor Appearances: 3 (Vincent Price’s Halloween Special, Back to the Future Screen Tests, I Didn’t Ask for This)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: Garth & Kat

Featured players

Vanessa Bayer

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 1 (Digital Short)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Paul Brittain

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 2 (I Didn’t Ask for This, Highway Cops)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Taran Killam

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 3 (Back to the Future Screen Tests, I Didn’t Ask for This, Highway Cops)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Nasim Pedrad

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 3 (Monologue, Digital Short, Vincent Price’s Halloween Special)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Jay Pharoah

-Major Characters: 0

-Minor Appearances: 1 (Back to the Future Screen Tests)

-Weekend Update Desk Appearances: 0

Winners and Losers

The winner this week was, pretty clearly, Kristin Wiig. She was in, like, every single sketch I think? And she and Fred Armisen had an endearingly odd Weekend Update appearance with their Garth and Kat characters. Runner-up winner is Bill Hader, both because of the numbers and because it was the Halloween episode and I think that’s a default Vincent Price win.

The loser this week was Vanessa Bayer, who only showed up briefly, and silently, in the digital short. Jay Pharaoh also had only one minor appearance, but it was a speaking role. Also he is very good at impersonating Eddie Murphy.

And, before I end this, I would like to specially mention the Back to the Future screen tests. Those were so good! Everybody did a great job in those. Everybody wins.

Kelly Conaboy writes a lot, but it’s never about anything.

SNL Horse Race Roundup: Week 5