WINNER: Bowen Yang
Last year’s mass exodus, with Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, Pete Davidson, Chris Redd, Melissa Villasenor and Alex Moffat all jumping ship, meant someone was going to have to fill the void. The biggest beneficiary? Yang, who went from 10th on the “look at me” charts to second this year. In fact, he was just three minutes shy of taking out Thompson for top dog of Season 48. Yang was often called on to lead off the show this season, giving him extra “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” visibility.