Saturday Night time Reside started its milestone fiftieth season with a large scores bump.
The season premiere, hosted by Hacks Emmy winner Jean Good, delivered 5.3 million viewers, in accordance with same-day scores from Nielsen (which don’t embody streaming). That’s the very best begin for an SNL season since 2020 and a 15 % enchancment over the 4.6 million viewers who tuned in for final yr’s premiere.
The premiere featured a bunch of visitor appearances, together with three by former castmembers: Maya Rudolph returned as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg performed Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and Dana Carvey portrayed President Joe Biden. Comic Jim Gaffigan additionally confirmed as much as play Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ VP nominee, whereas present common James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang performed the Republican nominees for president and vp, Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance.
The 5.3 million viewers additionally makes SNL one of the vital watched leisure packages of the 2024-25 season’s first week, based mostly on same-day figures. Pending outcomes for Sunday’s primetime, it trails solely three different reveals, all on NBC: The Voice (5.96 million viewers), Chicago Hearth (5.6 million) and Chicago Med (5.46 million).
SNL usually will get a scores enhance in election years — the season 46 premiere in 2020 introduced in additional than 8 million viewers, which was additionally a four-year excessive on the time.
