People have been questioning whether Saturday Night Live could deliver funny post-election skits, given that the show capitalized on its mockery of the election. Funny or not, SNL‘s first post-election episode drew the highest ratings so far this season.
The episode, hosted by Dave Chappelle making his hosting debut and with musical guest A Tribe Called Quest, drew a 6.2 Live+same day household rating in the metered markets and a 3.9 in adults 18-49 in the markets with local people meters, as Deadline reported.
Topping last week’s 5.8 in HH and 2.8 in the 18-49 demo with host Benedict Cumberbatch, these are the highest numbers for SNL in both categories this season. It was the highest 18-49 overnight since Dec. 21, 2013 (3.9 hosted by Jimmy Fallon and with musical guest Justin Timberlake). The last time SNL received a higher rating was May 21, 2011 (4.5 with that season’s finale, with host Justin Timberlake and musical guest Lady Gaga).
Also noteworthy is at the time of its premiere, the episode that Tom Hanks hosted and in which Lady Gaga was the musical guest was the most watched SNL episode in eight years, as reported by mxdwn.
In metered-market households, last night’s 6.2 topped the current season’s previous high of 6.1 on Oct. 22. Compared to SNL‘s average for originals in November 2015, last night’s episode was a +22% difference in households (6.2 vs. 5.1) and up +70% in 18-49 (3.9 vs. 2.3).