‘Saturday Night Live’ Ratings Rise With Host RuPaul & Musical Guest Justin Bieber

Nellie Andreeva
·2 min read

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RuPaul’s Drag Race fans and Beliebers turned up for last night’s Saturday Night Live hosted by RuPaul with musical guest Justin Bieber. The show, featuring Larry David and SNL alums Jason Sudeikis and Rachel Dratch in the cold open spoofing the New Hampshire Democratic debate, drew a 4.3 Live+Same Day household rating in the 44 local metered markets and a 1.9 adults 18-49 rating in the 25 markets with local people meters. That was up from last week’s episode (4.1, 1.7) hosted by NFL player J.J. Watt with musical guest Luke Combs.

This week’s telecast tied the November 23 show with host Will Ferrell and musical guest King Princess (4.3 in HH, 2.0 in 18-49 metered-market numbers) as the No. 2 highest-rated SNL in metered-market households among the 12 originals that have aired since Nielsen changed its methodology in October 5. In 18-49, it is the third highest-rated telecast.

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The fall finale/holiday episode of SNL on December 21 logged big season highs with the return of Eddie Murphy as host (6.7 in metered-market HH and a 3.4 in 18-49). Featuring Lizzo as musical guest, that episode has grown to a 6.78 rating in 18-49 and 20.6 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 No. 1 show of the night in both metered-market households and in 18-49 in the local people meters.

About 29% of SNL’s total viewed minutes during the 2018-19 season came on digital platforms through short-form videos and full-episode views.

Besides the cold open, the most popular videos from last night on YouTube as of Sunday morning are the opening segment of Weekend Update tackling President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial acquittal, RuPaul training Pete Davidson’s Chad to become the next drag star, and RuPaul’s interpretation of classic children’s book covers, with Bieber’s performances also among the most watched clips.

 

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