“Saturday Night Live” started its 50th season with strong ratings.
The “SNL” episode that aired on September 28 drew 5.3 million viewers in the Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings, the highest viewership for a season premiere of “SNL” since 2020. According to NBCUniversal, the episode is the most-watched” SNL” episode. ‘ once on Peacock during the first weekend, although they provided no further information.
The episode was hosted by Jean Smart with musical guest Jelly Roll, both of whom first appeared on the long-running NBC sketch comedy series. The cold open featured Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Jim Gaffigan as Governor Tim Walz and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden. It was originally reported in July that Rudolph would appear regularly on “Saturday Night Live” this season, as she had previously played Harris on the show in multiple sketches. She won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Harris in 2019, and played her again during the 2020 election cycle.
The episode also saw Bowen Yang dress up as everyone’s favorite baby hippo Moo Deng, with Yang also leading a Charli XCX talk show skit called “The TalkTalk Show”.
Upcoming hosts this season include Nate Bargatze, Ariana Grande, John Mulaney and Michael Keaton, while upcoming musical guests include Stevie Nicks, Coldplay, Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan.
“Saturday Night Live” is produced in association with Broadway Video. The creator and executive producer is Lorne Michaels.