Saturday Night Live had its highest rated May episode in five years, but ratings were still down compared to this season’s previous episodes.
The Chris Pine-hosted episode, featuring musical guest LCD Soundsystem, was the second of four episodes airing live on both coasts. Deadline reports that the episode, the first new one after a short hiatus, averaged Live+Same Day numbers of 6.919 million viewers and a 1.87 rating in the 18-49 demo.
The first of the live coast-to-coast episodes, hosted by Jimmy Fallon with musical guest Harry Styles, was an improvement on SNL‘s ratings with an average of 7.880 million viewers and 2.27 rating in adults 18-49. The Pine-hosted episode was still the highest-rated May episode for SNL since the season 37 finale, featuring host and musical guest Mick Jagger, in May 2012. This 42nd season has been one of SNL‘s most-watched seasons in twenty years with an average of 10.952 million viewers in Live+7.
Melissa McCarthy, who has been giving Baldwin’s Trump a run for his money with her Sean Spicer, is set to host next week’s SNL. McCarthy should bring the ratings back up for the penultimate episode.