15 Worst SNL Episodes Of All Time According To IMDb

"Saturday Night Live" has become an American institution in the decades since it premiered on NBC back in October 1975. Dozens of iconic episodes have aired over its five-decade run, and many former cast members have become big names in Hollywood thanks to their time on "SNL." It's been a springboard for some of the world's biggest and best comedians, but any series that's been around for as long as "SNL" has is bound to have some dud episodes, and the fact that the sketch show is written and put together in one week with a guest host means that there are always a lot of variables in play. 

Most of the people who have guest hosted "SNL" have been famous actors, comedians, and/or musicians, but every so often the show will take a chance on an athlete or a particularly topical figure. Sometimes that risk pays off, but it's also been known to backfire big time. Many of the lowest-rated episodes on IMDb feature hosts that could be categorized as "miscellaneous." While the writing and cast performances of any given episode are crucial, it's often the guest host that sets the tone for the episode and serves as its most memorable element. These are the 15 worst "SNL" episodes of all time by IMDb rating.

Musical Guest: Gwen Stefani

IMDb Rating: 4.7/10

Former "That '70s Show" star Ashton Kutcher has hosted "Saturday Night Live" four times, and two of those episodes are on this list. This 2005 episode was Kutcher's second time hosting, and it happened in the midst of the paparazzi blitz surrounding his relationship with Demi Moore. The couple received a lot of attention (mostly negative) for their relationship when they started dating thanks to their 15-year age gap. Naturally, Kutcher and Moore took the opportunity to make fun of the tabloids and their critics. Moore dressed up in old lady clothes and makeup, and at one point her fake dentures end up in Kutcher's mouth following a kiss. It seems like it should be funny, but it's really more icky than anything else. Another problem with this episode is the Oprah sketch — Maya Rudolph is a great comic, but she doesn't have a good Oprah impression in her repertoire.

Musical Guest: Good Charlotte

IMDb Rating: 4.7/10

It's not immediately clear why this 2003 episode featuring the late Bernie Mac as the guest host is rated so low on IMDb, but it most likely has to do with the fact that it aired at the height of the Iraq war and many of the episode's sketches reference it. In one sketch, for example, Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon play Red Sox diehards filming a home video from Fenway on opening day for a relative serving a tour in Iraq. It seems that a lot of jokes were too close to the bone for many viewers. Mac's monologue is all about staying vigilant post-9/11, and even though he was an experienced stand-up (and an undoubtedly funny one, at that), he fails to get an uproarious reaction from the audience. While the majority of IMDb users who rated the episode gave it 5/10, 14.8% of them gave it a rating of just 1/10, dragging the overall rating down.

Musical Guest: Outkast

IMDb Rating: 4.7/10

Anyone rewatching Season 27 of "Saturday Night Live" these days will probably take one look at the name Jonny Moseley and ask, "Who on Earth is Jonny Moseley?" In fact, that could very well have been the question running through viewers' minds in 2002 when Moseley was freshly announced as the guest host for Season 27, Episode 13. Moseley is a now-retired professional freestyle skier who won a gold medal at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998. He hosted "SNL" in 2002, the year he competed in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and placed fourth in his event. It's possible that NBC asked producer Lorne Michaels to choose a Winter Olympics athlete to host because the network had procured exclusive airing rights to the games for an eye-watering $545 million. Moseley conveyed good humor and energy, but as a young man who spent his whole life learning how to excel in one particular skill unrelated to sketch comedy, he was unfit to really nail the gig.

Musical Guest: Whitney Houston

IMDb Rating: 4.7/10

Rosie O'Donnell has hosted "Saturday Night Live" twice, once in 1993 and again in 1996. Her background in standup comedy certainly helped her perform the joke portions of her monologues with relative ease, but she hosted the Christmas episode in 1996, so her standup was cut short for the sake of a festive musical number featuring special guest Penny Marshall. Part of what makes this episode so unpopular likely comes down to O'Donnell's history of polarizing public opinion, but it could also have something to do with the fact there is not a single original sketch in the whole show (aside from the topical monologue). Every sketch features a recurring character for one or more of the cast, including Molly Shannon's Mary Katherine Gallagher, Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri's Spartan cheerleaders, and Tim Meadows and Tracy Morgan's Russell and Tate. They're not bad characters, but there's something quite boring about an episode of "SNL" without a single original concept.

Musical Guest: Rollins Band

IMDb Rating: 4.7/10

Pamela Anderson was still married to Tommy Lee and known as Pamela Lee when she hosted "Saturday Night Live" in April 1997. Despite its terrible rating, this episode is worth watching in part for Norm MacDonald's insane Tommy Lee impression and also for the wildcard energy of Pamela Anderson, who actually strips down during her monologue due to "nerves." Unfortunately, the writers didn't bother to think of many jokes that weren't just a reference to Anderson's body and it quickly becomes tiresome. There's a whole sketch where Anderson's cleavage causes accidents at a NASCAR event. This episode really hasn't aged well, and it's not just the one-dimensional sexist jokes: One sketch starring Tim Meadows and Tracy Morgan as Tiger Woods and his overbearing father in a fake documentary about Woods' success dates it to an era when Tiger Woods was an infallible athletic figure.

Musical Guest: Miley Cyrus

IMDb Rating: 4.7/10

This is the most recent episode in IMDb's bottom fifteen, and its position on the list is well-deserved. For one thing, Elon Musk is a classic miscellaneous host: He got to lead an episode of "Saturday Night Live" basically just because he's a particularly outspoken billionaire. The low rating for this episode (which was filmed and aired during the COVID-19 pandemic) is likely a result of the discourse surrounding Musk, but one thing cannot be ignored — he simply isn't a natural performer. Every sketch in the episode that features Musk feels a little off, but none more so than Wario's trial. It's without a doubt one of the cringiest "SNL" sketches of all-time and it can't be saved by an awkward pop in from Pete Davidson's Governor Cuomo or a largely unnoticed cameo from Musk's then-partner, the singer Grimes.

Musical Guest: Ms. Dynamite

IMDb Rating: 4.6/10

The first sketch following the monologue in this episode is a segment from a hip-hop show hosted by original characters from cast members Maya Rudolph and Dean Edwards. Queen Latifah, who gives the impression throughout the episode of being a pretty good sport, plays a manager to the latest hip-hop sensation, a literal baby rapper named Baby K played in the sketch by cast member Jeff Richards. It's a tough watch. "Saturday Night Live" has never really nailed the niche music talk show template, despite attempting it many, many times. This skit alone is enough reason for the episode to be ranked so low — it's almost like the sketch goes out of its way to avoid being funny. The disastrous Baby K sketch, combined with a tech issue that left Amy Poehler, Latifah, and Maya Rudolph without background music during another bit, are moments that "SNL" fans won't look back on fondly.

Musical Guest: Ricky Martin

IMDb Rating: 4.5/10

"Saturday Night Live" is well-known for its political sketches, especially those that air around election seasons. The show became such an important part of the political landscape during the 2008 presidential election that it actually aired an extra Thursday edition of Weekend Update at the height of campaign season. That said, audiences rarely react so favorably to cameos from politicized figures, and Monica Lewinsky's two-part appearance in this episode was fairly scandalous. Lewinsky is featured as Bill Clinton's future wife (in a dream) during the cold open and again as a guest host during a sex advice call-in show. It's admirable that Monica Lewinsky can make fun of herself and brave that she would go on live TV to do it, but all of the uproar around her appearance made the episode largely about her and her scandal. It certainly didn't help that Cuba Gooding Jr. made for a less-memorable host. 

Musical Guest: Eve

IMDb Rating: 4.5/10

Nia Vardalos hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2002 fresh off the success of her hit film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." There are a couple of amusing sketches (Vardalos performs well as an eccentric waxer to Rachel Dratch's particularly hairy customer, and she does a great Kirstie Alley impression parodying a popular Pier One commercial from the era), but the episode suffers from a weak monologue. It's not actually clear why this episode is rated so low on IMDb. There's no discourse on IMDb or Reddit from fans of the show to explain it's low rank. One possible explanation is that the Weekend Update segment, which can make or break an episode, is pretty lackluster compared to other Weekend Updates from this season.

Musical Guest: Justin Bieber

IMDb Rating: 4.5/10

Justin Bieber joined a distinguished group of performers when he served as both host and musical guest for his Season 38 episode of "Saturday Night Live." It wasn't the pop star's first time on the show (he was a musical guest in 2010 and made cameo appearances in 2011 and 2012), but this was his most memorable trip to 30 Rockefeller — for all the wrong reasons. Not only is this episode largely unfunny and forgettable, but Bieber apparently behaved terribly. "Bieber, he was just in a bad place. Maybe he's in a better place [now], but then ... it was rough," former cast member Bill Hader said on Watch What Happens Live (via The Hollywood Reporter). "He just seemed exhausted or at the end of a rope." Bieber's exhaustion and bad attitude come through during his episode, with the singer failing to breathe life into any of his featured sketches.

Musical Guest: 50 Cent

IMDb Rating: 4.4/10

Ashton Kutcher's first time hosting "Saturday Night Live" came in Season 28, and to say that it wasn't a success would be a big understatement. It's no exaggeration to say that this episode is pretty awful. Kutcher's monologue feels very over the top — he arrives on the stage without pants, having supposedly forgotten to wear them — and it's all downhill from there. Kutcher's somewhat manic approach during his sketches just doesn't work. At times, it feels as though he's trying to one-up energetic cast members like Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sans, both of whom co-star with Kutcher in the post-monologue feature sketch. Kutcher pairs much better with a nuanced comedian like Will Forte in the episode's Falconer sketch, but even that's forgettable compared to other Falconer bits. This was definitely one to forget.

Musical Guest: Toots and the Maytals

IMDb Rating: 4.4/10

Donald Trump hosted "Saturday Night Live" for the first time in 2004 thanks to the notable success of his reality show "The Apprentice," which began airing that year (Trump would host "The Apprentice" for 14 seasons before being fired from the role). This episode goes hard with the Trump content, starting off with an "Apprentice"-themed cold open and a monologue from Trump featuring cast member Darrell Hammond's impersonation of him. It goes without saying that Trump is a polarizing figure and there's no doubt that this factors into this episode's low rating, but he's also ill-equipped for comedy. Like Jonny Moseley a few years earlier, he simply isn't a natural at this kind of thing, with his lack of comedic timing meaning many of the gags don't land as well as they could have.

Musical Guest: Keane

IMDb Rating: 4.1/10

Paris Hilton was a Hollywood staple in the 2000s, largely thanks to her heiress status and her prominence on the Los Angeles club scene. It's not surprising that "Saturday Night Live" asked her to host in 2005, especially given the sheer volume of Paris Hilton jokes the show made during her tabloid era. Unfortunately for the producers and decision-makers at "SNL," asking Hilton to host was a gamble that didn't pay off: She is widely considered to be one of the worst guest hosts in "Saturday Night Live" history. Hilton does her best to be in on the joke as a host, but she lacks the ability to be anyone but herself, which doesn't bode well for the sketches she's in (she plays Melania Trump in one skit opposite Darrell Hammond's Donald Trump and the lack of laughs from the audience is painful).

Musical Guest: Pink

IMDb: 3.8/10

Reverend Al Sharpton is a well-known religious leader and civil rights figure who was most-prominent in the 20th century but has remained active in politics and social issues. Sharpton is yet another miscellaneous host with a very low episode rating on IMDb — in fact, his episode has the second-lowest score of all time. The episode heavily features Tracy Morgan beyond his monologue appearance, even though he was actually no longer a regular cast member at the time. Sharpton does a fine job as a host: There's nothing particularly heinous nor particularly praiseworthy about his performance. The episode is rated so low most likely because he is such a divisive figure in American culture. Tracy Morgan is actually great in this episode, which features a few interesting sketch premises, but the highlights aren't enough to overcome Sharpton's complex reputation.

Musical Guest: Sia

IMDb Rating: 3.1/10

When it was announced that Donald Trump would host an episode of "Saturday Night Live" during his presidential campaign, many people were outraged. "Saturday Night Live" hoped to capitalize on the public frenzy surrounding Trump's candidacy, and this did actually work: The episode produced the highest live viewership figures in years. However, the IMDb rating tells a different story: With a score of just 3.1, it's the lowest-rated "SNL" episode ever. Some of the people involved in the episode were mortified by the decision to let Trump host while running for president. "It was not enjoyable at the time," explained "SNL" alum Taran Killam during a 2017 radio interview with NPR, adding that the episode is "something that only grows more embarrassing and shameful as time goes on." Trump himself only has about 12 minutes of actual screen time during the episode, but this will always be remembered as the Trump episode, despite the fact that he had already hosted the show.

But enough about terrible "SNL" episodes — as a nice palate cleanser, here's Looper's list of the best "Saturday Night Live" episodes of all time.