--- title: Bill Hader and Jay Pharoah on Justin Bieber as SNL Host description: When it comes to the worst Saturday Night Live guest host, alums Bill Hader and Jay Pharoah are in agreement: It’s Justin Bieber. canonical: https://time.com/5213249/bill-hader-jay-pharoah-justin-bieber-snl/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-23T19:53:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:36.569Z og:title: SNL Vets Explain Why Justin Bieber Was the Worst Host Ever og:description: 'It was rough' og:url: https://time.com/5213249/bill-hader-jay-pharoah-justin-bieber-snl/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt345aa06dffaf8490/69892bd9bc6cfc20e23e5750/jay-pharoah-bill-hader-justin-bieber-snl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen - Season 15 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: SNL Vets Explain Why Justin Bieber Was the Worst Host Ever twitter:description: 'It was rough' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt345aa06dffaf8490/69892bd9bc6cfc20e23e5750/jay-pharoah-bill-hader-justin-bieber-snl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Hader and Jay Pharoah Will Tell You Why Justin Bieber Was the Worst _SNL_ Host Ever > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=35574a04-58fd-4695-957b-f608f2da3afd&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly Mar 23, 2018 7:53 PM UTC  Jay Pharoah and Bill Hader on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Jay Pharoah and Bill Hader on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Bravo—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images by [Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly Mar 23, 2018 7:53 PM UTC When it comes to the worst [_Saturday Night Live_](http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/18/bill-hader-cut-for-time-snl-sketch-st-patricks-day/) guest host, alums [Bill Hader](http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/20/bill-hader-john-mulaney-break-character-saturday-night-live/) and Jay Pharoah are in agreement: It’s Justin Bieber. Sorry, Biebs, but the _SNL_ veterans were pretty quick to reveal their answer when asked about it by a guest caller on Andy Cohen’s _Watch What Happens Live_. As Hader explained, “He was just in a bad place. Maybe he’s in a better place, but back then… it was rough.” The star of HBO’s [_Barry_](http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/23/hbo-barry-bill-hader-review/) added later, “He just seemed exhausted or \[at\] the end of the rope.” Hader had already spoken about the atmosphere backstage when the “Sorry” singer hosted in February 2013\. As [he told Howard Stern on the SiriusXM radio show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P8AhGgWtkU), “Justin Bieber showed up with like 20 guys and every time — backstage is a very small constructed place — he had a guy holding a slice of pizza, a guy holding a Diet Coke. You were trying to fight around all these people to get dressed.” On the flip side, Hader also told Stern, “I had nice chats with \[Bieber\] when he was doing the scenes… he was a nice guy. He would try to do the best that he can.” Pharoah followed up his stint on _SNL_ with _White Famous_, which [got the ax at Showtime](http://ew.com/tv/2017/12/30/white-famous-canceled-showtime/), and a performance in Steven Soderbergh’s shot-with-an-iPhone film [_Unsane_](http://ew.com/movies/2018/03/19/unsane-review-steven-soderbergh-claire-foy/). Meanwhile, Hader [returned to guest host the late-night sketch comedy series](http://ew.com/recap/saturday-night-live-season-43-episode-16/) on Saturday, March 17. A rep for Bieber did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/23/snl-justin-bieber-worst-guest-bill-hader-jay-pharoah/) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5213249/bill-hader-jay-pharoah-justin-bieber-snl/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5213249/bill-hader-jay-pharoah-justin-bieber-snl/"},"headline":"Bill Hader and Jay Pharoah Will Tell You Why Justin Bieber Was the Worst SNL Host Ever","datePublished":"2018-03-23T19:53:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:36.569Z","description":"\"It was rough\"","url":"https://time.com/5213249/bill-hader-jay-pharoah-justin-bieber-snl/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt345aa06dffaf8490/69892bd9bc6cfc20e23e5750/jay-pharoah-bill-hader-justin-bieber-snl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt345aa06dffaf8490/69892bd9bc6cfc20e23e5750/jay-pharoah-bill-hader-justin-bieber-snl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen - Season 15","caption":"Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen - Season 15","creditText":"Bravo—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5213249/bill-hader-jay-pharoah-justin-bieber-snl/","name":"Bill Hader and Jay Pharoah Will Tell You Why Justin Bieber Was the Worst SNL Host Ever"}}]}] ```