Season 40 Wrap-Up
After the casting mess of Season 39, Saturday Night Live tightened things up for its 40th Season. First, it introduced only three new cast members (with two being people of color and one being the first cast member born in the 1990s.) Second, it didn’t promote any of last season’s featured players to the main cast even after Nasim Pedrad left. Finally, it trimmed the cast down from 17 to 15. While that focused casting may not have impacted the quality of the show, might it have impacted the show’s numbers?
We plan to cover a lot of the same charts and graphs that we’ve had in previous season wrap-ups. Like our wrap-up for Season 39, we have past season data to use for comparison. From there we’ll be able to see if any returning cast members benefited from the new dynamics, as well as if any of the rookies could get a foothold.
First, let’s take a look at the individual cast performances.
With the departure of Nasim Pedrad, Vanessa Bayer became the most senior woman in the cast. As was the case with Pedrad, that title didn’t come with much. In addition to her previously successful characters of Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy and the product pitching ex-porn star, Bayer also played the unusually sharp yet put-upon wife in the recurring “My British Girlfriend” sketches. Beyond those character roles, Bayer took on mainly walk-on and straight-woman roles. The one exception, and probably Bayer’s best role this season, was one of the “Automated Flight Attendants.” Bayer’s most memorable roles have been when she has been able to take otherwise vapid or empty characters and turn them on their heads. Unfortunately, those kinds of roles are kind of limited on SNL. Bayer’s average is 8.67, though a majority of this season’s episodes were below that average. Those were balanced by two very strong episodes early and late in the season, but those largely seem like exceptions to the norm. Frankly, we’re not sure how much longer Bayer will stick around.
Coincidentally, Aidy Bryant has the same average as Vanessa Bayer. Like her co-star, Bryant very much felt like one of the supporting cast members even though she is well past her days as a rookie. Also like her colleague, Bryant had only a few memorable roles this season. She continued to be the more emotional half of the recurring “Girlfriends Talk Show” sketches as well as the trashily-assertive “Tonkerbell.” Beyond those roles, Bryant tended to play kids, older women, and the insecure. Really, we felt Bryant was at her best when paired with Kate McKinnon. It was a dynamic that reminds us of the pairing of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz in the late ’90s. Going back to the Bayer comparison, while Bryant has the same average, she seems to be slightly more consistent in that her “over-under” is a bit more evenly distributed.
For what seemed like quite a few episodes this season, Taran Killam was king of the cast hill. However, even though Killam is the alpha male of the cast, we can’t be too upset. Despite his consistently high scores, it felt as though Killam took a step back when it came to spotlight-grabbing roles. Instead he seemed to take on more straightman work as well as those Bill Hader-esque game show host parts. Killam still seems youthful enough that he can play those “bro” roles, but as he’s gotten to be one of the more senior cast members, he can diversify. Killam also has the highest cast average this season. There were only two episode where he scored less than ten points and towards the end of the season, he scored nearly thirty points in an episode. A majority of his episodes are below his average, but when his scores are so high, he doesn’t need to be as consistent.
Kate McKinnon was one of this season’s stronger performers, and we expect things will continue to get better for her. That boils down to one role: Hilary Clinton. McKinnon landed the role of impersonating the presidential candidate and her angle led her to carry more than a couple of sketches. Outside of the Clinton impression, she also had some meaty roles in one of the proprietors of “Whiskers R We,” the desperate bar patron in the recurring “Last Call,” and more quirky old ladies on Weekend Update than you can shake a funny Jesus painting at. In terms of numbers, she was in double figures for most of the season with only a relative rough patch in the early episodes. Her average is nearly down the middle in terms of higher and lower episodes.
Bobby Moynihan had a pretty solid season built again on mainly support roles and his ability to convey childlike wonderment and terror unlike anyone else in the cast. Moynihan also excelled at playing gruff archetypes when sketches called for them. While playing the wrestling foil to Dwayne Johnson best encapsulates Moynihan’s skills on paper, and the cartoon office assistant Pushie the Pin was one of Moynihan’s memorable sketches, his point-scoring role was probably Michael Che’s surprise rival Weekend Update correspondent Riblet. Unlike Moyniahn’s previous Weekend Update characters, Riblet had an air of aggressive triumph that we hadn’t seen from Moynihan in awhile. In terms of numbers, Moynihan’s average is decent. It’s also consistent enough to match his score for four individual episodes. Were it not for a few rough episodes in the second half of the season, Riblet would have more justification to drop the mic.
Relative to his fellow repertory players, Jay Pharoah struggled this season. He got some solid screen time on roles that called for his great impression skills. In addition to playing the President, Pharoah also shined as Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Hart. Other than that he tended to star in sketches that specifically called for African-American performers plus the occasional ensemble role. In terms of numbers, a majority of his episodes are actually below his average which says that those half-dozen double digit episodes really worked out for Pharoah.
Cecily Strong was the highest scoring female cast member and second-highest in the overall cast standings, behind only Taran Killam. All but two of her episodes were in double figures. Without that 5-pointer in Episode 6, Strong’s average might have given Killam’s a run for its money. Clearly Strong got a lot of screen time this season, from both her characters like the “Girl You Wished You Hadn’t Run Into at a Party” and Gemma the British Girlfriend, to her multitude of everywoman and straight roles. Strong excelled at playing the bubbly and dense, but she could put on enough of a serious intonation to land lots of the teacher and office worker roles. Strong’s time on SNL befits her surname, and we expect a few more years of strong performance from her.
Kenan Thompson has been on SNL since Season 29, making him the most senior active cast member. While he didn’t have the top average of the season, Thompson’s 13+ point average still befits someone who now has 12 years of the show under his belt. Like Cecily Strong, Thompson’s average would have been even more impressive were it not for two relative low points towards the beginning and end of the season. Thompson’s below-average episodes are more numerous than his above average episodes, but only slightly. Ever the veteran, Thompson played a variety of roles. In terms of original characters, Thompson’s strongest character was Willie, the surreally down-on-his luck yet optimistic janitor on Weekend Update. When it came to impressions, Thompson played both old favorites like Charles Barkley as well as new public figures like Ben Carson (which almost guarantees him some screen time next season as the Republican primaries heat up.) Thompson also shared those great utility game show host and presenter roles with Taran Killam. As far as sketch hosts go, we thought Thompson came out ahead thanks to his reaction shots and asides especially on “Forgotten TV Gems.”
That covers the main cast, Before we get into the featured players, we’d like to say something about Colin Jost and Michael Che. We don’t have graphs for them, even though we acknowledge that both Weekend Update anchors dipped their toes into the Waters of Other Sketches. That extra screen time still wasn’t enough to make their graphs a few blips above flatlines. If these two hold onto the Weekend Update desk, we hope they improve their chemistry. It’s been better than past Weekend Update iterations but we know this show can do better.
We were a little surprised to see Beck Bennett in the featured credits at the start of the season, but now a promotion seems almost a sure thing after seeing these numbers. His average is above that of three main cast members, after all. He did have a few lows in the middle of the season, but he nearly hit the 20-point mark a few times as well resulting in a fairly balanced season. His most memorable character is still Baby Boss, but his pitchman voice and clean-cut looks make him great for playing young men and stiff characters. Bennett also played lots of fratboy and stoner-type roles when paired with his Good Neighbor partner Kyle Mooney.
Pete Davidson was this season’s lone true rookie, and it kind of showed. He has the lowest average of the cast (outside of Che and Jost,) scored ten or more points only twice, and hit the dreaded Zero in his second episode. Like Brooks Wheelan before him and like his castmate Leslie Jones, Davidson seemed to get the most screentime when he played himself in standup-esque bits on Weekend Update. However, Davidson also worked well playing kids and stoners. He had some stiff competition from Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney, but being a native New Yorker Davidson brought both a more unpretentious and dry air about his performances so there’s still some chance for him to differentiate himself. He could use a little more experience since he comes across as so green, but the guy has potential.
We saw Leslie Jones every once in awhile on Weekend Update last season, but four episodes into Season 40 she got promoted from the writers’ room into featured player status. As with past cast members who come partway into the season, we calculated two averages for Jones. If we consider her scores across the entire season, she has a lower average than Pete Davidson. If we count her scores across only the time she was in the cast, her average goes up by nearly a point. Most of her scores are above her average, and that’s due to a pair of 2-pointers towards the middle and end of the season. Jones was another cast member who struggled if only because her specialties remind us of other under utilized cast members. First, Jones is the oldest cast member, about ten years ahead of vets like Bobby Moynihan and Kenan Thompson, and while she’s no George Coe, that may have boxed her out of younger-leaning sketches. Meanwhile, Jones has used her commanding presence and booming voice to play figures of authority and/or intimidation, kind of like Rob Riggle ten years ago, except there were few roles outside of her solo outings that really called for those skills. Jones picked up extra screen time in women-ensemble sketches like “Bad Week” and “Their Own League,” but it wasn’t enough to bring up her numbers.
The other half of SNL’s digital team, Kyle Mooney was another featured player whose numbers this season almost certainly merit a promotion, if only because his average is higher than three main cast members (just like Beck Bennett.) Slightly more of his episodes are below his average, which means that a trio of really high scores in the last third of the season really paid off. Mooney excelled in playing teens and stoners because of his long hair, laid-back California sensibilities, and seemingly small frame. We suspect Mooney beat out Pete Davidson for many of those roles because of his more urgent stage presence and emphatic acting style. Otherwise Mooney tried to get lots of walk on roles – his best episode consisted of lots of two-point parts surrounding a few speaking roles. That’s a good outlook, and we suspect Mooney will be around for awhile.
Sasheer Zamata came into the cast partway into last season, so we expected her to show a little more stage presence much like Kate McKinnon in her second season. While Zamata was not the lowest scoring cast member, she’s definitely in the bottom third of the standings. She scored ten or more points in only four episodes, and she joined Pete Davidson in visiting Zero-land. However, her over-under score count is actually pretty balanced with three episodes very close to her average. Zamata was another one of those cast members who excelled at playing young people. She played this skill well in some sketches like the recurring “How 2 Dance,” but even then she played second fiddle to the host. Zamata also got screentime playing public figures like Michelle Obama and Rihanna, but her impression skills still have a long way to go. It’s strange because Zamata actually comes from a sketch and improv backround, though that may have taken a backseat to standup based on what we saw of her before she came to SNL. If she can nab more screentime next season, we think she’ll better be able to hang with her castmates.
Now that we have covered all of the individual cast performances we’d like to move on to how the cast performed as a whole. We tracked this episode to episode with the cast average graphs, but now we’d like to see how the whole season went.
The cast average seemed to wobble instead of trending upward or downward this season. We had some rough numbers early into the season, followed by a general improvement, followed by a dip in the middle coinciding with the entry and exit of the holiday season. Things generally picked up again in the last third of the season, though the last few episodes left things on a rather anticlimactic note.
Next we’d like to compare the cast in a different way. The pie chart covers how individual cast members compared to each other in total across the whole season.
Much like some of the more uneven episodes we have seen this season, the overall pie chart shows that a lot of the scoring opportunities went to top three cast members Taran Killam, Cecily Strong, and Kenan Thompson. They were the only three cast members to have 10% or more of the season’s points, and they combine for just under a third. Meanwhile the bottom five cast members (Che, Davidson, Jones, Jost, and Zamata) combined for a paltry 20% of the season. Once again, Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney are the only featured players to look like main cast members.
As strong as their performances and overall numbers were, the top three cast members performed with the same consistency as a lot of their mid-tier peers. The exception to this is Cecily Strong, who scored so many 13-pointers that her median and 25th percentile scores were the same. This is why she has no red half of her box plot. The only other non-Weekend Update cast members to come close to that level of consistency were lower-tier performers Pete Davidson and Sasheer Zamata. The most volatile cast members as indicated by the differences between their 25th and 75th percentiles were towards the top tier (Kate McKinnon,) mid tier (Kyle Mooney,) and lower tier (Leslie Jones.) McKinnon and Mooney actually had higher outlier scores than Thompson, but they weren’t as consistent episode-to-episode.
This box plot charts the season-to-season scores of the returning cast members. The biggest takeaway is the growth in scoring each of the returning featured players (Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, and Sasheer Zamata) experienced even though they weren’t promoted this season. Let’s look at each individually.
- Vanessa Bayer’s range trended downward after holding for two seasons. While her scores got more volatile compared to season 39, her high and low episodes got closer.
- Beck Bennett’s range figures went up so much that his median this season equaled his 75th percentile from last season.
- We apologize for all the Vanessa Bayer comparisons, but Aidy Bryant also had decreased figures and increased volatility. She’s different in that her pattern is more up-then-down instead of steady-then-down.
- Taran Killam’s median continued to climb, along with his 25th percentile and outliers. On top of that, his box plot slimmed down to show more consistency. What a pro season!
- Kate McKinnon’s median held steady, but the outliers and box boundaries all went up from last season. This illustrates a pattern of season over season growth which could portend more good years for this rising star.
- While Kyle Mooney’s lowest score stayed pretty much the same, all of his other numbers went up (along with his volatility.) Similar to Beck Bennett, Mooney’s numbers jumped up so much that his 25th percentile this season matched his 75th percentile last season. It was a good season for the Good Neighbor boys.
- Bobby Moynihan had a slight rebound this season, along with a tighter overall range. Within the scope of seasons we’ve covered, his pattern is up-down-up vs. Aidy Bryant’s down-up-down pattern.
- Falling somewhere between Kate McKinnon and Taran Killam in terms of improvement and consistency is Jay Pharoah. His main range stayed pretty much the same compared to last season, but his outlier scored converged around his box.
- We mentioned earlier how eerily often Cecily Strong scored 13-point episodes, but here we see that in addition to getting more consistent she lost most of her upper range (hence her not being #1.) On the other hand, this season she had the highest overall episode we have seen since we’ve covered her time on the show.
- Kenan Thompson’s 25-75 range wavered somewhat, in that his lower range tightened while his upper range loosened and his median stayed the same. He’s been doing this for more than a decade, so it’s fair if there’s not much of change in his score patterns season to season.
- We’ve been critical of Sasheer Zamata’s screen presence on the show, but she’s actually made personal gains to rival the more prominent Bennett and Mooney. While she still had goose eggs in both of her seasons, her 75th percentile became her 25th percentile this season.
That concludes our coverage of the cast performances. Now we’d like to look at the hosts.
At the end of the season Jim Carrey sits at the top of the host standings with a pretty much uncontested 40 point score. From there we see a four-point drop to the two hosts tied for second place. That’s the biggest drop we see between host scores in what otherwise makes for a steadily downward-trending host scoreboard. The host standings bottom out at 24 points, which is solid enough but certainly below some cast scores we’ve seen.
While the range in host scores actually tightened up between the highest and lowest, the variation within the majority actually increased, downward cascade and all. “Downward” is actually a good word to focus on, as most of the increased variation occurred between the 25th percentile and median host scores compared to last season.
Now that we’ve covered the show’s numbers, we’d like to talk about some qualitative things this season.
Even though we didn’t find as much to really remember this season in terms of great sketches, breakout characters, or standout hosts, we do commend SNL for one thing – it treated its 40th season like it was another season. We loved the 40th anniversary spectacular for its breadth, reverence, and juxtaposition of everything SNL has done, but the show did well limiting all that back-patting and all-starring to three hours on a Sunday night. Meanwhile the actual show continued forward with the latest batch of Not Ready For Prime Time Players and mix of sketches, It showed some restraint on the part of the showrunners and we respect that.
Onto our recommendations for cast changes. In the main cast, we could see releasing Vanessa Bayer. Even though she’s contributing, her numbers are dropping enough that her departure could make room for a more junior or under-utilized cast member. In the featured players, we would promote Bennett and Mooney since their numbers justify such, and keep the rest of the non-Weekend Update team since they’re either showing improvement or contributing enough to justify another year to prove themselves. However, we could see some changes for Weekend Update. We credit Michael Che for helping Colin Jost loosen up and step out of Seth Meyers’s shadow. However, Che’s lackadaisical and sloppy delivery blew several jokes for us. On the other hand, if Che went away, Jost could backslide into his Season 39 version. As such, if Jost couldn’t handle a solo outing, we’d pull him and replace him with a straight-deliverer like Beck Bennett, who could perform in the vein of Chevy Chase or Kevin Nealon. If Bennett needed additional support, we’d actually put a more well-rounded cast member like Sasheer Zamata, who’s been light on characters and decent on standup experience.
And that concludes our coverage of Season 40. While SNL takes a break we’ll return to covering Classic SNL and Season 32. Enjoy the summer break!
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