These Five ‘SNL’ Hosts Were Asked Back the Fastest
When Nate Bargatze returned to host Saturday Night Live earlier this month, it had been less than one calendar year since his previous headlining gig in October 2023. That’s a pretty speedy reappearance! But it doesn’t even crack the top 20 in terms of quickest returns to 30 Rock between hosting gigs. (Bargatze ranks 21st, according to the number nerds at Saturday Night Network.)
Who got back even quicker? Here are the five SNL hosts who returned the fastest…
Tie: Buck Henry and Steve Martin: 126 Days
Maybe the hosting talent pool wasn’t as deep in the early days of Saturday Night Live, or maybe Lorne Michaels knew to ride a funny horse once he found one. Take Buck Henry, for instance. He hosted SNL’s 10th episode ever in January 1976, then returned in May of the same year to host the 21st as well. “Buck Henry so totally got it,” Michaels has explained. “When he got there, he said, ‘Do you want to do the Samurai again?’ And we had never thought of repeating things until that moment.”
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Henry’s return after 126 days was matched in Season Two by Steve Martin, who hosted in October and again in February. Maybe they gave Martin another shot so fast because “the first time I did the show, there was a fire in the studio,” he says in SNL oral history Live From New York. “The cast was a little upset because they were not in their home world. We had to go to Brooklyn. I remember being very nervous and thinking, ‘Oh my God, it’s live.’”
Father Guido Sarducci: 119 Days
Don Novello was actually a writer and featured player in two different SNL seasons (5 and 11). In between, he hosted the show twice in Season Nine as Father Guido Sarducci, the gossip columnist for the Vatican newspaper.
To be fair, only the first was a solo turn. After his hosting shot in January 1984, he returned 119 days later for a stunt show he co-hosted with Billy Crystal, New York Mayor Ed Koch, Betty Thomas and NBC newsman Edwin Newman.
Edwin Newman: 77 Days
Sensing a pattern here in Season Nine? You already know Newman was one of the panel of hosts in May 1984, but Newman also did the job alone 77 days earlier. Maybe the joke was that he wasn’t particularly funny.
Billy Crystal: 56 Days
The last one, promise. Crystal hosted in March 1984, then returned a scant 56 days later to join the menagerie of hosts in May. It was a small payback since his appearance on the first Saturday Night in 1975 was cut for time.
Even more payback: Crystal’s successful hosting gigs inspired Dick Ebersol to gut his cast of unknowns and hire a bunch of comedy ringers for Season 10, including Christopher Guest, Martin Short, Harry Shearer and Crystal.
Candice Bergen: 42 Days
No multi-host tricks this time. Bergen’s hosting appearance on the fourth-ever episode was when Saturday Night found its footing. “Candy’s show, the fourth show, was the first show, I would say, that was a Saturday Night Live like the ones we have now,” said Michaels in Live From New York.
“I remember the terror. You know, the total exhilaration of it,” Bergen said. “It was like the inmates taking over the asylum.” Her first show was such a hit — both with the viewing audience and smitten cast members — that she was asked back just 42 days later to host the inaugural Christmas episode.