So far it looks like NBC’s simultaneous live broadcasting of SNL is paying off.
Deadline reports that the first episode of Saturday Night Live to air live coast-to-coast averaged 7.880 million viewers. The episode was hosted by Jimmy Fallon and featured musical guest Harry Styles.
Fallon’s episode was a ratings improvement over last week’s Louis CK-hosted episode (an episode now mired in controversy in regards to plagiarism and Tig Notaro’s Clown Service short film). The Fallon/Styles episode had the most viewers since Alec Baldwin’s record-breaking 17th episode as host.
SNL‘s most recent episode featured another appearance by Baldwin as Trump (meaning “not much longer” is at least month), and Fallon putting his goofiness to work as Jared Kushner. Melissa McCarthy returned as Sean Spicer for a special Easter announcement, giving the SNL writing staff a chance to poke fun at Spicer’s White House Easter bunny past and his recent inflammatory comments about Hitler.
Saturday Night Live is taking a break the rest of April. The last three of the special coast-to-coast live broadcasts will be hosted by Chris Pine (May 6th), Melissa McCarthy (May 13th), and Dwayne Johnson (May 20th).