‘Saturday Night Live’ Ratings Rise In Households With Host J.J. Watt, Steady in Adults 18-49

Nellie Andreeva
·2 min read

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Saturday Night Live has a long and successful tradition of athletes serving as hosts. The latest to take the stage of Studio 8H was NFL player J.J. Watt during Super Bowl weekend. The Feb. 1 edition of SNL, with host Watt and musical guest Luke Combs, featuring Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump in an impeachment trial-themed Cold Open and Watt paying tribute to Kobe Bryant during the episode’s curtain call, drew a 4.1 Live+Same Day household rating in the 44 local metered markets and a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating in the 25 markets with local people meters.

That was up in households and even in adults 18-49 from last week’s show, hosted by Adam Driver with musical guest Halsey. Last night’s show was in line with the two shows leading to the SNL fall finale, the Dec. 14 edition with Scarlett Johansson (4.0 in HH, 1.7 in 18-49) and the Dec. 7 show with Jennifer Lopez (4.2, 1.7).

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The fall finale/holiday episode of SNL on Dec. 21 delivered big ratings with the return of Eddie Murphy as host (6.7 in HH and a 3.4 in 18-49). Featuring Lizzo as musical guest, that episode has grown to a 6.69 rating in 18-49 and 20.4 million viewers overall with delayed viewing on digital and linear platforms to date.

Versus primetime programming on the Big 4 networks last night, SNL is easily the #1 show of the night in both metered-market households and in 18-49 in the local people meters.

Last week’s skits have done very well online, led by Driver’s Star Wars-themed Undercover Boss sequel, which became SNL’s #1 most-watched video in the Saturday-Monday window ever, with more than 8 million YouTube views. The video, which also ranked as the #1 most-viewed Entertainment Video of last week on YouTube by a wide margin (per ListenFirst), has amassed 12 million views to date.

From last night’s episode, beside the Cold Open and the Frozen 2 and The Bachelor parodies, the most popular videos on YouTube as of Sunday morning are the opening segment of Weekend Update and a Coronavirus update with recurring character Chen Biao.

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