NBC submitted 11 of its 20 Season 51 Saturday Night Live hosts for Emmy guest acting consideration, a significant pullback from Season 50 when all 20 hosts received Emmy submissions. Ariana Grande tops the actress ballot for guest comedy actress after her December episode drew 5.4 million viewers — the highest-rated telecast of the entire season — while Sabrina Carpenter, who hosted in October, is among the nine hosts left entirely off the ballot. The full breakdown first appeared in Variety’s full analysis of SNL Season 51’s Emmy acting submissions and strategic exclusions.
The Seven Actor Submissions
NBC entered seven male hosts for guest comedy actor: Bad Bunny, Ryan Gosling, Harry Styles, Jack Black, Colman Domingo, Will Ferrell, and Connor Storrie. The list reads as a roster of awards-friendly names with existing Academy relationships — Ferrell and Black are Emmy veterans; Domingo received an Oscar nomination in 2024; Gosling’s Barbie performance kept him in awards conversations through 2025. Bad Bunny, who opened Season 51 as the first-ever back-to-back Latino host, is submitted for the second consecutive year.
The Four Actress Submissions
Four female hosts are entered in guest comedy actress: Ariana Grande, Amy Poehler, Olivia Rodrigo, and Melissa McCarthy. Grande’s inclusion is the most prominent: her December episode — her first hosting appearance since the Wicked campaign made her ubiquitous in late 2024 — topped the season at 5.4 million viewers. Rodrigo, who hosted and served as musical guest in a dual role, benefits from both her credentialed performance and her status as one of the most commercially dominant artists of 2025–2026. McCarthy is a previous Emmy winner for SNL guest work and brings demonstrated Academy goodwill.
Nine Notable Snubs
The nine hosts excluded from Emmy consideration represent a wide range of profiles. Sabrina Carpenter, who hosted October 18 in Season 51’s third slot and turned in a widely praised performance, is the most prominent omission given her commercial standing as one of the biggest pop stars in the US. Alexander Skarsgård’s January episode drew 4.8 million viewers — the season’s third-best — yet he received no submission, undercutting the idea that ratings alone drove inclusion. Also left off: Matt Damon (a 2019 Emmy nominee for SNL), Glen Powell, Josh O’Connor, Finn Wolfhard, Miles Teller, Nikki Glaser, and Teyana Taylor, who received a recent Oscar nomination and represents the most surprising emerging-talent omission.
What the Numbers Show
The 11 submitted hosts averaged 4.6 million viewers per episode versus 4.2 million for the nine who were omitted — a modest gap that suggests viewership is one factor among many. NBC appears to have weighted existing Emmy relationships, genre-fit, and perceived awards viability above raw ratings. The pullback from Season 50’s blanket approach reflects what was likely a one-time 50th anniversary promotional strategy rather than a sustainable submission policy. Overall Emmy performer submissions declined nearly 8 percent industry-wide this cycle — 1,573 submissions versus 1,706 in 2025 — as catalogued in Variety’s Emmy voting launch report covering total submission tallies across all 17 acting categories.
The SNL submission news arrives in the middle of an active Emmy week. Eastern Herald’s coverage of Noah Wyle and Sally Field’s Variety Actors on Actors interview tracks The Pitt’s dual acting-and-directing Emmy bid heading into nominations. And the Television Academy’s removal of Jon Hamm from the Emmy guest drama actor race is detailed in Eastern Herald’s Jon Hamm Emmy disqualification report.
