TV Ratings: ‘Saturday Night Live’ Post-Election Episode Delivers 3-Year High

Will Thorne
·2 min read
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After a memorably horror-stricken episode four years ago, this week’s post-election edition of “Saturday Night Live” was a far less sombre affair.

Comedian Dave Chappelle was back again as host for the episode which delivered huge ratings and viewership numbers for NBC. According to Nielsen research, the episode scored around 9.1 million total viewers and averaged a 2.6 rating among adults 18-49. That makes it the highest-rated “SNL” episode in three-and-a-half years. The last “SNL” to beat that number was the Melissa McCarthy and Haim edition from May 2017.

That viewership tally is also the largest in around a year. The pre-Christmas episode from last year, hosted by Eddie Murphy with musical guest Lizzo, drew just under 10 million total viewers at the same stage.

Compared to the previous post-election episode, this week’s edition, which featured the Foo Fighters as the musical guest, is up 4% in total viewership. The 2016 episode scored a much higher rating with a 3.2 in the same demo. However, that 2.6 score still represents the highest rating for a comedy telecast since the “Big Bang Theory” went out with a bang in May of last year.

This weekend’s “SNL” aired just hours after the presidential race was called for Joe Biden. It featured sketches recreating Biden (Jim Carrey) and Kamala Harris’ (Maya Rudolph) victory speeches, as well as imagining what Donald Trump’s (Alec Baldwin) concession will look like (the current President is yet to admit defeat, of course).

As for Chappelle’s monologue, the comedian covered a wide range of topics including Trump, COVID-19 and mass shootings. The audience cheered when Chappelle said that Trump will no longer be in the White House.

“Donald Trump’s a wild guy,” Chappelle said, referencing Trump’s guesswork approach to dealing with coronavirus. “How about some bleach? Some bleach directly in our body. Oh boy, the Secret Service is going to have to childproof the White House now … ‘Mr. President, don’t touch that stove, it’s hot; turn those scissors around, Mr. President, if you’re going to run around the house.”

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