This Actor Has Held The Title Of SNL's Youngest Ever Host For Over 40 Years

Hosting "Saturday Night Live" is one of the most difficult gigs in show business. Because each new episode of the show is written and produced in a single week (as chronicled in a series of "SNL" documentaries for the 50th anniversary), whoever hosts the show must run the gamut of meeting the cast and writers, approving sketch ideas, rehearsing chosen sketches again and again, and then performing them live in front of millions of people, which also requires reading from cue cards rather than memorizing the lines that are often changing right up until the cameras roll. Yes, again, all of this happens in a single week.

But that hasn't stopped several surprisingly young hosts from taking the stage at Studio 8H in 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Jodie Foster was just 14 years old when she hosted in November 1976 after starring in "Taxi Driver," "Bugsy Malone," and "Freaky Friday" in that same year. Fred Savage hosted at 13 years old in 1990 while starring in the hit family drama series "The Wonder Years." And Macaulay Culkin hosted in 1991 at the height of his fame from "Home Alone." 

However, none of those talents were the youngest to ever host the show. That honor lies with an actor who has held the title since hosting back in 1982, and it's none other than Drew Barrymore.

At seven years old, Drew Barrymore hosted the November 20, 1982 episode of "SNL" after finding stardom in the wake of her heartbreaking, breakthrough performance as Gertie in Steven Spielberg's "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." In fact, her hosting stint resulted in a sketch centered around Gertie accidentally killing E.T., prompting her being forced to deal with Mr. T showing up looking for his son (E.T., get it?). Sadly, that sketch isn't available online for us to revisit.

What you can watch is Drew Barrymore's adorable opening monologue, where she answers questions from the audience, assisted by cast member Tim Kazurinsky: 

But perhaps the most memorable bit from Drew Barrymore's 1982 hosting stint was her appearance with The Whiners, a recurring pair of characters played by Joe Piscopo and Robin Duke, known for their whiny voices and incessant complaining. In fact, the sketch actually puts a fun twist on the recurring bit, because they don't appear until halfway through the sketch to adopt Barrymore, who is herself a whiny orphan hoping to be adopted: 

It should be noted that, although Barrymore holds this record-setting distinction, the overall episode itself isn't particularly great. That's mostly because it aired during the 1980s era when Lorne Michaels was no longer in charge of "SNL," and the show only remained relevant thanks to the presence of sudden rising star Eddie Murphy. 

Thankfully, Drew Barrymore would make up for it with the five hosting stints that followed in her adult years.

Drew Barrymore has become one of the best recurring hosts in "SNL" history. After a complicated and somewhat tragic childhood, she would return to "SNL" as a grown up star in 1999, after finding new success in films like "The Wedding Singer," "Ever After: A Cinderella Story," and "Never Been Kissed." After that, he comeback resulted in further hosting stints in 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2009.

Barrymore's adult hosting gigs gave us plenty of memorable sketches, such as her appearance in one of The Love-ahs sketches with Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch as the hot tub-dwelling Roger and Virginia Klarvin. It's one of those sketches where everybody breaks, resulting in some hilarious moments:

Another notable sketch saw Barrymore tapping into one of Kristen Wiig's characters by playing Gigli, an Italian version of the peculiar and constantly apologetic Gilly:

Barrymore hasn't hosted since 2009, though she did make a cameo during Jonah Hill's induction into the Five Timers Club in 2018, so she's overdue for another episode of her own. She's been busy hosting her own daytime talk show, but surely she can make time to make another appearance on the late night sketch comedy series.