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“SNL50” closed out its celebratory weekend with an impressive audience.
The three-hour “SNL” anniversary celebration brought in 14.8 million viewers across NBC and Peacock and scored a 2.53 rating in the 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewing figures and internal streaming data. Viewership is expected to keep growing as fans catch up over the coming days.
Among both total viewers and demo viewers, “SNL50” ranks as NBC’s most-watched primetime entertainment telecast five years, since NBC broadcasted the 2020 Golden Globes. The telecast also became Peacock’s most-watched entertainment simulcast, though was still outpaced by three telecasts of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
For comparison, viewership for “SNL50” nearly rivaled that of the 2025 Grammys, which brought in 15.4 million viewers in February, and outpaced viewership for the 2025 Golden Globes, which scored 10.1 million viewers in January. Still, “SNL50” failed to come near the viewership for the Oscars, which most recently scored 19.5 million in 2024.
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The red carpet show for the event, which was hosted by Willie Geist, Matt Rogers and Leslie Jones, brought in 6.5 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and E! as it aired prior to “SNL50” from 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET.
Throughout the night, “SNL50” garnered 8.7 million social interactions, making the event NBC’s most social entertainment telecast in two years and the highest-performing “SNL” episode to date when it comes to social interaction.
The three-hour telecast closed out a weekend-long “SNL” celebration, which opened on Friday night with a star-studded homecoming concert, which reached reached nearly twice the average reach of “SNL,” Peacock said without providing specific numbers. On Saturday night, NBC re-broadcasted the first episode of “SNL” on Saturday night.
“SNL50” revived a number of “SNL” sketches and characters from across the show’s 50 years, including “Black Jeopardy,” Kristen Wiig’s Dooneese, Molly Shannon’s Sally O’Malley, Pete Davidson’s Chad, Kate McKinnon’s Miss Rafferty, Rachel Dratch’s Debbie Downer, Mike Myers’ Linda, Bobby Moynihan’s Drunk Uncle and Marcello Hernandez’s Domingo, among others.
The lead-up to “SNL50” also boosted ratings for “SNL” this season and for its adjacent programming, with the Timothée Chalamet-hosted ranking as the steamer’s third best livestream on record and music doc “Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music” reaching over 9 million viewers across NBC and Peacock since its debut in late January.
“Saturday Night Live” was created by and is executive produced by Lorne Michaels. “SNL” is produced in association with Broadway Video.
All seasons of “SNL” and all “SNL50” programming are now streaming on Peacock.
