The ratings feast for Saturday Night Live that was Palin-Fey mania is long gone...
Directly from NBC:
In late-night metered-market households Saturday night:
- Saturday Night Live (4.7/12 in metered-market households), hosted by Ryan Reynolds and featuring musical guest Lady Gaga, dominated its time period. SNL is up 2% week to week in the metered markets (4.7/12 vs. 4.6/11).
- Saturday Night Live delivered the #1 non-sports rating of the night in the metered markets, topping all primetime entertainment telecasts on all the major networks. In fact, SNL outscored every Saturday primetime and late-night non-sports telecast on every major network over the past four months (since June 6).
- Last year's comparable telecast, boosted by extraordinary interest in the 2008 Presidential Election and a guest appearance by Tina Fey as Gov. Sarah Palin, earned a 7.3/18 in metered-market households on October 4, 2008. Two years ago, the comparable SNL edition scored a 4.1/10 on October 6, 2007. Versus two years ago, last night's SNL is up 15% in metered-market households.
Good ratings still for a Saturday show
These ratings are actually pretty impressive. There’s no point comparing the numbers to last year, since the numbers were obviously boosted by the election. Compared to 2 years ago, SNL is up, and that’s a rare accomplishment in today’s television landscape.
The ratings aren’t too bad, but the first two shows of this season have been awful. They really need a new cast member who can do a good Obama. That alone would push their ratings through the roof.
I agree with Mark. Basically 2008 was a blip with Palin and SNL seems to be doing well this year. This past Saturday’s show was pretty great. Lady Gaga participated in skits plus Madonna, Scarlett Johansson and Elijah Wood.
Lady Gaga’s second performance was the best performance I’ve seen all year. If I had known she was on the show I would have watched live. I ended up only watching her performances, her two skits and Ryan Reynolds monologue on Hulu
The real question is how it’s doing compared to 2 years ago.
Samantha, since these are still just the preliminary household ratings its hard to read a lot into the numbers vs. two years ago until the demo ratings are available. But vs. last season the differences are so dramatic that it’s certain the demo group ratings are way down too.
Yeah I bet the cast of SNL voted for John McCain to keep their show funny.
Cody, you can actually find plenty to laugh at with Obama. A round trip flight to Denmark to get the Olympics being rewarded with a FAIL. The massive carbon footprint left in the wake of said flight by someone pushing for cap & trade. Maybe they could do a sketch where Oprah introduces him to Skype?
Unfortunately, the SNL crew is more interested in worshipping their sacred cow rather than lampooning the utter ridiculousness of his inept and hypocritical behavior. Oh well, it wouldn’t be SNL if it didn’t suck.
Much more ironic humor in ego-centric Obama than the tired “McCain’s old” jokes we keep hearing.
I understand SNL has a couple of hot new writers fresh from Chicago’s 2nd City. Just wait till they get settled in.
what were the demos?
this week was WAY better than last week
they had a new song, the sketches were all funny, Ryan Reynolds was way better than whats her name and lady gaga’s second performance was really good
@ So awful, it’s ALMOST…
You obviously didn’t watch last week’s SNL. They did a pretty good job of shredding Obama in the intro.
I’d like to give my opinions on the quality (or lack thereof) of “SNL” this season, but, alas, I can’t. Lorne Michaels ditched Michaela Watkins for no apparent reason. So I ditched the show in return. The ‘fourth hour of “The Today Show”‘ skits were the only thing I looked forward to last season, so no reason to even bother now that they’re over. I’m sure as hell not going to tune in just to see that comedy vacuum, Andy Samberg, do horrible impersonations of rappers, inane rap digital shorts, and oh-so-timely parodies of TV shows from the 1980s.
Even with me not watching anymore, I admit the show still makes me laugh. Well, at least I laughed when I heard that one of Watkins’ replacements accidentally said the “F” word — on her very first show. That’s what you get.
For those of you who thought either episode of SNL was funny — well at least I know who this show appeals to. Seriously.
This cast is atrocious, the writing is lazy — it’s beyond awful. And while it’s been on a decline for years, this year it has totally bottomed out. Pitiful.