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Saturday Night Live S49 Shows Ranked: Stone, Gosling, Sweeney & More

With NBC's Saturday Night Live wrapping up Season 49 this weekend, we're ranking and offering insights into the SNL season's 20 episodes.

It began with Pete Davidson and Ice Spice on October 14, 2023, and wrapped this weekend with Jake Gyllenhaal and Sabrina Carpenter. Of course, we're talking about the 20-episode 49th season of NBC's Saturday Night Live. With a few months off before the long-running sketch comedy/music series returns for its milestone Season 50, it'll be interesting to learn over the summer what the plans are going to be, festivities-wise. As we get ready to pack up our Season 49 coverage and haul it off to storage next to the Ark of the Covenant, we wanted to pass along our official final ranking of the season's shows – listed from best to basement based on our "out-of-ten" rating and other factors.

NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 49: Our Show Rankings

A quick note before you jump in. In instances where shows tied within their review scores, I applied the completely unscientific approach of going back to review their respective SNL YouTube playlists and then ranked them based on how much each of them had me laughing on rewatch (since we're talking about splitting hairs). Along with a link to each review, we have a quick ten-second thought as well as a look at each respective host's monologue:

(9) S49E06: Saturday Night Live: Start Fitting Emma Stone for "Ten-Timers" Jacket: Emma Stone could be an SNL cast member just like that (snaps fingers). Yeah, she's that good…

(9) S49E14: Saturday Night Live Hits Big with Josh Brolin, Ariana Grande (REVIEW): A man who initially comes across as so serious has no right to be the level of talented goofball that Josh Brolin is…

(9) S49E04: SNL Cast, boygenius Guarantee Chalamet's "5-Timer" Future: Review: Timothee Chalamet has a likable charm that pulls you in and comedic skills that continue to get stronger with each passing sketch.

(9) S49E07: SNL, Adam Driver Offer Much-Needed Dark & Twisted Anti-Holiday Effort: Adam Driver goes dark in all of the best ways possible in a twisted antidote to the holiday season.

(8.5) S49E17: Saturday Night Live Sees SNL Cast, Ryan Gosling Breaking Big: Review: Just a solid effort all-around, though it's pretty safe to say that the "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch with Ryan Gosling, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, and Kenan Thompson will be the one sketch that folks remember the most from it.

(8.5) S49E16: SNL, Kristen Wiig Fly High With A Little Help From Their Friends: You can't go wrong with Kristen Wiig  – and when you add in all of the familiar faces who showed up to celebrate the SNL alum's "Five-Timers Club" milestone status, we had an SNL episode that felt more like a really fun variety show.

(8.5) S49E03: SNL: Nate Bargatze, Foo Fighters Set Season 49 Back on Track: Review: Nate Bargatze already proved himself as a stand-up comic, but this show gave him a chance to show off more of his comedic acting chops.

(8) S49E20: SNL Season 49 Ends Strong with Scooby-Doo, Joke-Swap & More (REVIEW): A fun season finale boosted by imaginative sketches and Jake Gyllenhaal delivering and then some to every sketch – even if they didn't always hit with me.

(8) S49E08: SNL Team, Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish End Year on Holiday High Note: Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish should be allowed to co-host one episode every season moving forward.

(7.5) S49E13: Saturday Night Live Gets Back to Having Fun with Sydney Sweeney's Help: After an odd run of shows and behind-the-scenes drama, Sydney Sweeney helped SNL remind us that it knows how to have fun.

(7.5) S49E10: Saturday Night Live Season 49 Back on Track with Johnson, Timberlake: A solid effort, but Dakota Johnson appeared to struggle in sketches that needed the host to broaden their comedic range a bit more.

(7.5) S49E01: Saturday Night Live: Pete Davidson, Ice Spice Lead Solid Season: Pete Davidson's return to Studio 8H to kick off the season wasn't perfect, but it was a strong start to the season after a strike-shortened 48th season.

(7.5) S49E15: Saturday Night Live Team, Ramy Youssef Offer Easter Treat: Review: A fun showing that may not have been heavy on the laugh-out-loud moments, but at least it had me smiling most of the time. Ramy Youssef clearly committed to his sketches, showing a broader comedic range than we've seen in the past.

(7.5) S49E18: Saturday Night Live, Dua Lipa Bring More Smiles Than Laughs: Review: Not a lot of laughs but definitely a ton of smiles, with Dua Lipa a natural on the stage and a serious candidate for the "Five-Timers Club."

(7) S49E11: SNL Distractions Undercut Efforts; Ayo Edebiri, J.Lo Deserved Better: Though some of it was self-inflicted, Ayo Edebiri deserves a do-over because this show was too overshadowed by real-world drama.

(7) S49E05: Saturday Night Live Needed More SNL, Less "The Jason Momoa Show": Jason Momoa needed to lose himself more in the sketches instead of making it seem like he always needed to remind us that he was in on the joke.

(6) S49E12: SNL, Shane Gillis Left Us Wondering Why This Show Even Had to Happen: Once again, I'm still not sure what the purpose of this was except to show us that Shane Gillis didn't deserve to be fired from SNL – because he shouldn't have been hired in the first place.

(5) S49E02: Saturday Night Live Cast Can't Save Show from Bad Bunny, Guest Stars: I'm not exactly sure what the reason was – maybe it was nerves, maybe it was being stretched too thin during a very busy week – but Bad Bunny seemed lost through most of the show.

(3.5) S49E19: SNL, Maya Rudolph, Vampire Weekend Make for Surprisingly Weak Effort: There was no reason on paper why this shouldn't have been a killer episode. But a double-dose of Mother's Day celebration led to a mixed bag of half-hearted efforts that not even Maya Rudolph could elevate.

(3.5) S49E09: SNL Cast/Writers, Jacob Elordi Do Right By Bad Bunny But Not Viewers: A show that was pretty much a bunch of different variations of one joke: "Isn't Jacob Elordi hot?" Not helping matters was Elordi, who came across as bland and vanilla in how he approached each sketch.

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