The actor’s April 13 episode, which also featured musical guest Chris Stapleton, drew 8.9 million viewers after seven days, according to NBCUniversal. In the 18-49 demo, the episode is up to a 2.0 rating. That’s the show’s largest seven-day audience since Billie Eilish hosted in December 2021, and it’s the best demo performance since Dave Chappelle’s last hosting gig in November 2022.
The Iowa native delivered a heartfelt message about her basketball future, thanking many of the great players who came before her. “I’m sure it will be a big first step for me, but it’s just one step for the WNBA thanks to all the great players like Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, the great Dawn Staley, and my basketball hero, Maya Moore,” Clark said. “These are the women that kicked down the door so I could walk inside. So, I want to thank them tonight for laying the foundation. Clark came back on stage at the end of the show, bringing her former Hawkeye teammates Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall and Jada Gyamfi with her. (Chrlaie Neibergal/AP)
The network has since 2014 used its 10 p.m. slot on Saturdays to run Saturday Night Live repeats from across the show’s decades-long run, a move that whets fans appetites’ for the 11:30 p.m. main showing of the popular late-night series. The 60-minute cut-down of the archival selection is known as SNL Vintage. In recent weeks, however, the archives have stayed shut. Instead, NBC has been sticking with repeats of episodes from this season or last — a bid, perhaps, to keep the focus on the show’s current cast of players.
Saturday Night Live was welcomed back to the airwaves with open arms. The Season 49 premiere managed 4.8M viewers on NBC, according to Nielsen data. That marks a 19% audience increase versus the Season 48 premiere. The episode, hosted by Pete Davidson with musical guest Ice Spice, also scored a 0.96 rating among the 18-49 entertainment demographic, which is up 31% over last year to become the best demo performance since the season premiere in 2020.
The long-running sketch comedy show will premiere Season 49 on Oct. 14, NBC announced Wednesday. Former cast member Pete Davidson will host, making good on a plan to have him host last May. The comedian will be joined by first-time musical guest Ice Spice.
Saturday Night Live should get pretty much a full season after the writers and the studios reached an agreement to end the strike. The NBC show had Season 48 cut short by three episodes when the writers walked out at the beginning of May. The show, which traditionally restarts at the very end of September or the beginning of October, is now likely to return on either Oct. 7 or 14, pending a vote by the WGA.
Exclusives
The queen of 30 Rock could be making her return to 30 Rock. A source tells the New York Post that Tina Fey is being courted to take over as executive producer of Saturday Night Live when creator and current executive producer Lorne Michaels departs. So far, Michaels, 78, has not formally announced any intention to leave the weekly sketch comedy series he created for NBC in 1975.
The post-production editors behind Saturday Night Live are ready to strike and have set a deadline of April 1. Barring an agreement with producer NBCUniversal, the 12 to 20 editing crew members have announced that they intend to halt work and disrupt the show should bargaining sessions in their bid for pay inequities and health benefits continue to stall.
The Jan. 21 episode hosted by Plaza with Sam Smith as musical guest received a 0.98 rating in the advertiser friendly 18-49 demographic, which is the highest of the season. It also drew 4.8 million total viewers, according to Live+Same Day Nielsen data. That’s the second largest audience of the season, trailing only Steve Martin/Martin Short episode’s 5.1 million viewers on Dec. 10.
PEN, the literary and free expression organization, is giving Saturday Night Live creator-executive Lorne Michaels its PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, which in previous years has gone to Toni Morrison, Stephen Sondheim and Patti Smith among others. The May 18 event will be hosted by Colin Jost, the longtime SNL writer and “Weekend Update” co-anchor.
A few hours before the last episode of the season Saturday, the NBD show’s Instagram account posted a cue card saying, “we’ll miss you, Cecily.” The caption read “Tonight we send off one of the best to ever do it.” A two-time Emmy nominee for her work on the show, Strong was known for characters like the Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With At a Party and impressions of people like Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green.
The Saturday Night Live creator explains how the show is handling one of its biggest cast turnovers in decades and why he has no plans to retire.
NEW YORK (AP) — Straight out of “Top Gun: Maverick,” actor Miles Teller will host the opening episode of the 48th season of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 1. Pulitzer […]
The comedian is the eighth castmember to leave the NBC sketch comedy series ahead of Season 48.
Saturday Night Live is trying to replenish its ranks after many of its best-known cast members have signaled they intend to leave the show. The venerable NBC latenight program has enlisted four new featured players for its 48th season, a move that will lend some ballast to the cast after mainstays like Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant decided to leave. The four new featured players are Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker.
Lindsay Shookus, a producer on Saturday Night Live and head of its talent department, is leaving after 20 years. Deadline understands that Shookus decided to leave the show ahead of this season given that it is essentially a rebuilding year with a number of key cast members such as Pete Davidson and Kate McKinnon leaving. She was offered a promotion but decided it was the right time to exit.
Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney will also leave the cast of the venerable latenight show that aired its 47th season finale on Saturday. The departures represent one of the biggest cast shake-ups in years on a show that has seen unusual steadiness in recent seasons.
Pete Davidson is leaving Studio 8H. The comedian is poised to sign off for good from NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where he has been a staple for the past eight seasons after joining the Lorne Michaels sketch comedy as one of its youngest-ever castmembers. Castmembers Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney are also expected to announce their departure alongside Davidson during SNL’s season 47 finale, to be hosted by Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) and featuring musical guest Japanese Breakfast.
NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Davidson has bowed out of a short ride to space on a Jeff Bezos rocket. The “Saturday Night Live” star is no longer able to […]
The Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York performed a “Prayer for Ukraine” during the opening of Saturday Night Live on Saturday. Cast members Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong introduced the choir.
The Saturday Night Live boss says the show’s upcoming 50th anniversary could very well be the right time to exit.
Some of the most-watched sketches featuring cast members of Saturday Night Live aren’t taking place on NBC’s venerable latenight show. Last year, SNL was the most-watched traditional TV series among viewers between 18 and 49, the demographic most coveted by advertisers in entertainment programming.
The Season 47 Saturday Night Live premiere, hosted by Owen Wilson, didn’t get the sketch-comedy show off to a great start in TV ratings. According to Nielsen’s earliest-available data, SNL drew a 3.5 household rating, which was in line with the final two Season 46 episodes, but down 35% from the Season 46 debut. Those numbers are drawn from the 44 metered media markets from which Nielsen gets its first results.
Don Roy King, who has won 11 Emmys for directing Saturday Night Live, is retiring and is set to be replaced by The Ellen DeGeneres Show director Liz Patrick. King, who is thought to have directed more hours of live U.S. network television than anyone else, has been the director of the long-running NBC series since 2006. He previously directed CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CBS This Morning and Good Morning America.
Only Beck Bennett, known for impersonations of former Vice President Mike Pence and a buff Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is exiting as the NBC show returns this weekend for its 47th year.
Saturday Night Live has booked its return. The venerable late-night NBC sketch-comedy series will premiere its 47th season on Oct. 2, in line with last year’s launch, which aired on Oct. 3. The show will kick off a consecutive run of shows with hosts and musical guests to be unveiled shortly.
