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“SNL” kicked off its 50th season with the biggest premiere audience the NBC show has seen since 2020.
The Season 5o premiere of “SNL,” which aired on Sept. 28, scored a viewership of 5.3 million on NBC, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewing figures, outpacing viewership for “SNL” season premieres for Seasons 47-49. The episode als ranks as the most-watched “SNL” ever on Peacock in its first weekend on the streamer.
Viewership for the Season 50 premiere was up 10.4% from the Season 49 of “SNL,” which debuted its first post-strike episode to an audience of 4.8 million viewers.
“SNL” Season 46 premiered in 2020 to 7.77 million total viewers as it saw Jim Carrey play Joe Biden, Maya Rudolph play Kamala Harris and Alec Baldwin portray Donald Trump.
Four years later, the cold open for Season 50 saw Rudolph return as Harris, while Dana Carvey played Biden, Jim Gaffigan played VP candidate Tim Walz, and Andy Samberg played Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff.
The “SNL” Season 50 debut was hosted by “Hacks” star Jean Smart, who recently won her sixth Emmy for her performance as Deborah Vance in “Hacks,” and featured Jelly Roll as the episode’s musical guest.
“SNL” is set to return on Oct. 5 with Nate Bargatze hosting and Coldplay serving as the musical guest. Ariana Grande, Michael Keaton and John Mulaney have already been announced as hosts for subsequent episodes this fall, with already announced musical guests including Stevie Nicks, Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan.
Bargatze hosted an episode of “SNL” last fall, which brought in 4.9 million viewers, which was, at the time, the most-watched new installment of the show since December 10, 2022, when “Only Murders in the Building” stars and “SNL ” alum Steve Martin and Martin Short hosted.
“SNL” broadcasts at 11:30 p.m. ET/ 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and streams live on Peacock. The NBC late night show will host a live primetime special for its 50th anniversary on Sunday, Feb. 16. Produced in association with Broadway Video, “SNL” was created by and is executive produced by Lorne Michaels.
