The ‘Saturday Night Live’ record set by Scarlett Johansson: “It can be a little bit intimidating”
Over the last 50 years, a mind-boggling number of famous faces have passed through the doors of Saturday Night Live. For one thing, the cast has included comedic icons like Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Chevy Chase and too many others to mention. However, even more celebrities have found their way into SNL’s orbit by hosting the show. In fact, over the years, a select group has excelled at this odd, highly-pressured gig, as the host must take part in sketches, link each segment together, and deliver a killer monologue. Indeed, within this context, Scarlett Johansson has broken one of SNL’s most historic records.
Johansson’s history with Lorne Michaels’ iconic sketch show goes all the way back to 2006, when she notched her first hosting gig on the back of starring in the Woody Allen tennis movie Match Point. Over the years, it has developed into something very close to her heart, for more reasons than one. She returned to host again in 2007, 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019, and when asked by Howard Stern about what kept drawing her back, she revealed that the experience is entirely unique, a little bit scary, but ultimately exciting and fun.
“I love it,” Johansson gushed. “It’s great. The first couple of times, I think they probably had no idea what to expect, and neither did I. I mean, I’m sure that you’ve been backstage and seen a bit of how it works and everything, but it’s a well-oiled machine.”
Johansson admitted that sometimes the SNL environment can be unnerving for an incoming host, who is entirely focused on their episode, yet is working with writers who will be crafting jokes for a different celebrity the very next week. “It can be a little bit intimidating going into those writers’ meetings,” she said. “It’s a crazy environment. It’s an amazing environment.”
In 2017, Johansson’s connection to SNL became more personal than that of other celebrities who simply love hosting the show, like John Goodman or Christopher Walken. When she first set foot in Studio 8H in 2006, she met a young writer named Colin Jost, who was working through his first year on the show. Some 11 years later, though, after reconnecting on her fourth SNL hosting gig, Johansson and Jost, now a full-blown SNL star, struck up a romantic relationship. They married in 2020 and had their son Cosmo in 2021.
Considering she was now married to one of the show’s primary cast members, fans could have been forgiven for thinking Johansson’s next hosting gig would only be a matter of time. In the end, it took six years to come to pass, but on April 24th, 2025, Johansson was announced as the host of the season 50 finale on May 17th.
This made Johansson a record-breaker, as no other woman has hosted the show seven times. She was tied on six shows with Drew Barrymore, the first woman to become a six-time host in 2009, and Tina Fey, a former cast member whose six hosting gigs came between 2008 and 2018. It put Johansson in rarified air, although she still has a long way to go to equal the overall record holder for celebrity hosts: Alec Baldwin, who has performed the sacred duty an impressive 17 times.
