“Saturday Night Live” rose in ratings (and in total viewers) this past weekend, when Jonathan Majors was host and Taylor Swift was the musical guest.
Though we’re guessing Swift, who performed her 10-minute version of “All Too Well” off the newly released “Red (Taylor’s Version)” album, had the larger impact on viewing audiences.
The Nov. 13 episode earned a 1.37 rating among adults 18-49 and 5.8 million total viewers. That was up from the prior week, the Nov. 6 episode hosted by “Succession” star Kieran Culkin, which received a 1.31 rating and 5.7 million total viewers.
Majors and Swift’s “SNL” episode is the third-most watched and third-highest rated episode of the currently airing Season 47.
The No. 1 slot for the season goes to the Oct. 9 episode hosted by Kim Kardashian West and featuring musical guest Halsey, which got a 1.65 rating and 6.5 million viewers.
The second-place titleholder is the Oct. 23 “SNL,” hosted by former “SNL” cast member Jason Sudeikis with Brandi Carlile as musical guest. That episode got a 1.49 demo rating and 6 million viewers.
All of the numbers above come from Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data set, plus one day of digital viewing, per NBC.
Saturday’s “SNL” featured Swift’s fifth time as musical guest in Studio 8H, and her first time ever performing the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” on television. The song was released Friday on Swift’s updated version of “Red,” which is one of six albums the Grammy winner is re-recording in order to gain control over her own masters.
Swift chose to sing the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” as her only musical performance on “SNL,” giving up the usual two slots the musical guest gets to do one mega-sized performance.
While she sang the lengthy track, which is widely considered to be about her three-month relationship and subsequent breakup with Jake Gyllenhaal in 2010, the short film she wrote and directed to accompany “All Too Well” played behind her strumming the guitar.
The movie, which was released online Friday evening, stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien as its central couple with Swift appearing at the end as the older version of Sink’s character.
Simu Liu will make his “SNL” hosting debut this week. His musical guest, Saweetie, is making her first appearance as well.
(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included a typo in Jake Gyllenhaal’s name. TheWrap regrets the error.)