Saturday
Night
LiveFantasy
Draft cast members, hosts, musical guests, sketch settings and wild cards. Score points every Saturday when they show up on the show. Highest season total wins.
- Active roster
- 12
- Bench
- 3
- Season
- 1
How it works
The game in one minute
It plays like fantasy football. A group of friends forms a league and drafts teams in the summer, before the new SNL season is announced. Each week, everything on your active roster that appears in the live episode earns points.
Weekly points add up to a season total. Final points and bonuses are tallied after the season finale in the spring, and the team with the highest cumulative score takes the league.
Team rosters
Build a 12-slot roster
Every team starts 12 active slots and may keep up to 3 more on an inactive bench, for 15 total. A bench is optional. Only active slots score.
Anyone named in the opening credits, featured players included. Must be active that week to score.
Where a sketch takes place: a game show, a bar, a hospital. Score each time it's on camera.
Your predictions for who will host. Locked in for each half-season.
Your predictions for who will perform. Locked in for each half-season.
A recurring show moment, like an animal on stage or glass breaking. Can be swapped weekly.
Big league, small cast? Drop to 2 cast members and 2 wild cards per roster so every team gets a fair share.
Cast members
- Comedy teams, when a part of the show, such as Please Don't Destroy can be drafted as a unit. A piece of content from the team scores 1 point for the team.
- Members of a comedy team don't each score for the team's digital short. If one appears in a regular sketch, they score as an individual.
- A cast member who is also in a comedy team can be drafted separately. Own both and a single digital short earns you 2 points.
Hosts and musical guests
- These are true prognostications. Picks are made long before NBC announces anyone.
- Your picks stay active from September through the Christmas show, then can be replaced in the supplemental draft.
- Most weeks, at least two of these slots will score nothing. That's the gamble.
- If one of your picks makes a cameo in someone else's episode, you still score the cameo.
Sketch settings
- Pick from the approved bank below, or propose your own. The commissioner can reject a setting that overlaps an existing one.
- A sketch that moves between two locations scores both.
- A combined setting, such as a game show in outer space, scores Game Show and Sci-Fi.
Wild cards
- One active wild card per team per week. Only one team can own a given wild card at a time.
- Wild cards can't overlap hosts, musical guests, cast or settings.
- The league votes on the approved list before the draft. The commissioner breaks ties.
Point attribution
The scoring sheet
Points stack. A cast member in the cold open who plays a recurring character and says the opening line collects every one of those events in the same sketch.
| Scoring event | Points |
|---|---|
| On camera | |
| Appears in a sketchThe monologue, pre-tapes and music videos count as sketches. | +1 |
| Speaks in a sketch | +1 |
| Appears in the cold open | +3 |
| Says "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" | +5 |
| Plays a recurring character or catchphrase | +5 |
| Appears on Weekend UpdateAnchors score +1 as a sketch instead. | +3 |
| Cast member appears in the monologue | +3 |
| Breaking character | |
| Causes another cast member to breakPer person who breaks. | +10 |
| Breaks characterOnce per sketch, no matter how many times. | −2 |
| Predictions | |
| Correct host pickOnce per season. | +20 |
| Correct musical guest pickOnce per season. | +20 |
| Correct host and musical guest, same episodeReplaces the two +20s. Doesn't stack. | +40 |
| A host on your roster cameos in another episode | +10 |
| Musical guest appears in a sketch or pre-tape | +10 |
| Settings, wild cards and bonuses | |
| Sketch setting used | +2 |
| Wild card happens | +5 |
| Viral performance bonusAwarded at the end of the season. | TBD |
Cut for time scores nothing
Only what airs in the live show counts. Sketches posted online after the show were never officially part of it.
Weekend Update
Anchors score 1 point, like any sketch. A cast member who comes to the desk scores 3, and 3 more if they're playing a returning character.
Anchors can share the bit
When an anchor plays opposite a cast member's recurring character on Update for a repeat appearance, the anchor scores the recurring points too.
Playing yourself isn't a character
Cast members can't score recurring character points when they appear as themselves.
Breaks add up across sketches
Break three times in one sketch: −2. Break once in each of three sketches: −6.
Making people break pays
Crack up five castmates in one sketch and you collect +50 for that sketch alone.
Host swapped before air date
If an announced host or musical guest is replaced, their owner can keep the +20 or swap that slot for a new pick.
The bench doesn't score
A benched cast member who steals the show earns your team zero points that week.
Worked example
One night, one player
Here's how a single cast member's score came together on Season 51's premiere, hosted by Bad Bunny with musical guest Doja Cat.
James Austin Johnson posted the top cast score of the night. Everything he did on camera is counted, and his points go to whichever team had him active that week.
Bad Bunny himself scored 16 for appearing in eight sketches, and two wild cards (an animal and a celebrity cameo) hit 13 times each. Doja Cat scored nothing because she didn't appear in a sketch.
| Appeared in 3 sketches | +3 |
| Spoke in 4 sketches | +4 |
| Cold open | +3 |
| Recurring character, 4 times | +20 |
| Weekend Update appearance | +3 |
| Episode total | 33 |
Approved bank
Sketch settings
- Game Show
- Talk Show
- News Desk / Field Report
- Living Room
- Restaurant
- Hospital / Doctor's Office
- Bar
- Car
- Historical any past time or place
- Fantasy
- Sci-Fi
- Film / TV Set
- Retail
- Office
- Laboratory
- Theater / Stage
- Infomercial
- Film Parody
- Basement
- Social Media
- Podcast / Radio
Approved bank
Wild cards
- An animal is featured
- Political cameo
- Celebrity cameo
- Former cast member cameo
- Host sings in the monologue
- Host leaves the stage during the monologue
- A puppet appears on camera
- Glass breaks sound effect counts
- Blood or vomit
- Host sings outside the monologue
- Food is central to a sketch
- On-camera kiss objects and cartoons count
- Character death
- Lorne Michaels appears
Cameos and monologue cards are each one pick: choose a single version, not the category.
Drafting
Draft day
Before the draft
- New leagues set the draft order at random. After that, last place picks first and the champion picks last.
- Each league chooses its format: linear, snake, auction or salary cap.
- There are no draft guides for this game. Do your own homework.
- The league votes on wild cards before the draft.
During the draft
- The commissioner hosts the draft, in person or online. The league can vote on a pick clock.
- Pick from any category at any time. You can stack 15 hosts if you like, but you won't score anywhere else.
- Picked something already taken? Pick again.
- Miss the draft and you can be excused, send a proxy, or let the league draft for you with the commissioner keeping it fair.
- No trades during the draft. The commissioner records every roster in a shared sheet afterward.
The season
From the first announcement to the finale
- Summer
Leagues draft. Host and musical guest picks are blind predictions.
- Season opens
Scoring starts the day NBC announces the first host and musical guest.
- Every Saturday
Active rosters score from the live episode. Totals update each week.
- Christmas break
Optional supplemental draft for hosts and musical guests.
- Season finale
Final points and bonuses are tallied. Highest total wins.
Supplemental draft
- Every host or musical guest pick that hit in the fall earns you one extra slot of that type for the spring.
- Release any host or musical guest pick and redraft it. Released names are open to every team.
- The draft runs at most 6 rounds. Teams draft only as many rounds as slots they're replacing.
- Lowest point total at the break picks first. Highest picks last.
- Sitting it out is fine. Nobody is required to change their roster.
The commissioner
- Scores the league and updates the standings each week.
- Approves trades, settings and wild cards.
- Records roster changes and announces them to the league.
Roster moves
Trades and free agency
Trades
- Trades are allowed all season once the commissioner approves them.
- Trades don't need to match positions. Swap a host prediction for a cast member, or a setting for a wild card.
- Once a host or musical guest is officially announced, that pick is locked and can't be traded.
Free agency and departures
- Undrafted cast members, settings and wild cards are free agents. Tell the commissioner to make a swap.
- Dropped players go on waivers for other teams to claim.
- If a cast member leaves mid-season, their team replaces them right away. If no cast members are free, the team can claim one off another team's bench, and that team refills the spot.
- A released host or musical guest who has been announced can be claimed off waivers before the show airs, with commissioner approval, for the full 20 points.