Seth Meyers

AT HIS BEST | He's delivering stinging, snarky commentary on the week's headlines via "Weekend Update."

AT HIS WORST | As SNL headwriter, he's content to reduce most every opening monologue to a tepid song-and-dance number.

Bill Hader

AT HIS BEST | He's alternating between spot-on impressions (such as Homeland's Saul/Mandy Patinkin), creating vivid originals (like the war vet puppeteer) and putting in the occasional appearance as Stefon.

AT HIS WORST | He's saddled with playing the kindly host of SNL's almost-interchangeable game show spoofs.

Aidy Bryant

AT HER BEST | She's stumbling into the once-in-a-lifetime, one-off role of debate moderator Candy Crowley or excelling as the tragically uncool gal pal of Cecily Strong's "Girlfriends" talk show host.

AT HER WORST | She gets stuck in a loop playing the overly energetic/borderline-spastic, wide-eyed type.

Vanessa Bayer

AT HER BEST | She's mocking Miley Cyrus (which she, conspicuously, has not done in a while), playing a corny bar mitzvah boy or sending up Fox Newswoman Gretchen Carlson.

AT HER WORST | She's struggling (valiantly) to sell a joke that precious few are in on, in the "J-Pop America Fun Time Now‎" bits — or, peculiarly, spending stretches of the season warming the bench with Jay Pharoah.

Bobby Moynihan

AT HIS BEST | He's assaulting us with no-tech malopropisms as "Drunk Uncle" or slipping in another "Underground Festival" cameo as Ass Dan (R.I.P.).

AT HIS WORST | He's content to play the googly-eyed third banana rather than inject fresh laughs into a floundering sketch.

Jason Sudeikis

AT HIS BEST | He's a jovial Joe Biden, riffing on Romney or simply yet gloriously running in place, sporting a tracksuit and the goofiest of grins, on "What Up With That?"

AT HIS WORST | He is left to play the boss/professor/adult in charge. (Just because those characters sometimes point out the stupidity happening in front of our eyes doesn't make the end product any less unfunny.)

Tim Robinson

AT HIS BEST | [Not enough data to support a hypothesis]

AT HIS WORST | [Not enough data to support a hypothesis]

(P.S. He's the one on the far left in photo.)

Fred Armisen

AT HIS BEST | He's forming a 'Gay Couple From Maine' with Bill Hader, talkin' tough as Queen Elizabeth or creating something new that doesn't call for a funny accent.

AT HIS WORST | He's still trying to make "The Californians," which shoulda been a one-and-done bit, happen, or giving us another installment of "The Manuel Ortiz Show."

Jay Pharoah

AT HIS BEST | He's precisely mimicking the likes of Denzel Washington and Kat Williams.

AT HIS WORST | He's still shying away from — yet of course miles closer to — the pointed Obama impression that eluded Fred Armisen for years.

Nasim Pedrad

AT HER BEST | She's eviscerating Kim Kardashian — a bit which has sadly been MIA this season. Outside of that, she does an entertaining riff on Arianna Huffington and can make something as random and fleeting as "Grinchina" oddly compelling.

AT HER WORST | Her take on Kelly Ripa still falls sadly short, going for simplistic airhead vapidity versus an informed interpretation of the daytime talk personality.

Cecily Strong

AT HER BEST | She's delivering something of her own creation (a la Weekend Update's "The Girl You Wished You Hadn't Started a Conversation With At a Party").

AT HER WORST | She's falling back too regularly on a sassy Long Island/Latina princess persona.

Kenan Thompson

AT HIS BEST | He's hosting another lively if ultimately inconsequential installment of "What Up With That?!"

AT HIS WORST | His seeming inability to do any voice other than his own leaves any impression (e.g. Homeland's Estes) and most every other characterization rather unmemorable (aside from the bitter taste of how self-satisfied he seems with his work).

Taran Killam

AT HIS BEST | He's creating something absurd yet instantly viral (like Mokiki), creeping out Tunnel of Love riders as one of the Merryville Brother marionettes or Chanel-ing Brad Pitt.

AT HIS WORST | See: "Fun Time, J-Pop America" and "Californians, The."

Kate McKinnon

AT HER BEST | She's creating strange, incredibly specific characterizations like her hilarious Ann Romney, Spanish church "artist" Cecelia Gimenez or Louis CK's drunken bar hookup.

AT HER WORST | She relies a little too heavily on generic "wackiness" as a supporting player. Plus, a few of her impersonations seem like they'd have been better executed circa 2008/09.