Back in May, NBC’s long-running sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live recorded one of its lowest rated seasons on record for its 41st season of being on the air. The show’s luck seemed to change when Margot Robbie hosted the season premiere on Oct. 1 and gave SNL it’s highest rated premiere in eight years.
And now, SNL has something else to celebrate: Saturday’s episode, which featured Tom Hanks hosting and Lady Gaga performing to promote her new album, is season 42’s highest-rated episode and most watched October episode in eight years, according to TVLine.
While the number of people who watched Saturday’s episode hasn’t been released yet, TV by the Numbers reported that the show received a 6.1 rating in the metered households and a 3.0 rating for viewers 18 to 49. This beats the season premiere, which scored a 5.8 rating in the metered households and a 2.7 rating for viewers 18 to 49.
Saturday’s episode was the best performing episode since Nov. 7 of last year, when Donald Trump (yes, the real Donald Trump, not Alec Baldwin’s Trump) hosted the show and Sia served as the musical guest.
The episode also served as one of the best performing episodes to air in October, breaking a record that has been in place since 2008, which, coincidentally, was an election year. In 2008, the highest rated October episode aired on Oct. 18 and had Josh Brolin serving as the host and Adele performed as the musical guest.
Saturday’s episode had all the makings to be a well-performing episode and it did not let fans down. The show opened with the third and final presidential debate and featured Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon) winning in bingo and Trump (Alec Baldwin) promising to be a “baby Trump” before yelling his answers.
Host Tom Hanks didn’t disappoint, but by now he’s an old pro at it, since he said in his monologue that this was his ninth time hosting the show.
Saturday’s episode included many memorable sketches from “Black Jeopardy” to “A Girl’s Halloween,” but the most talked about was “The Haunted Elevator,” which featured Hanks as David Pumpkins on a haunted elevator ride.
There’s no new episode this Saturday because of Halloween, so the show is airing a repeat of the season premiere. Benedict Cumberbatch will host the Nov. 5 episode (and the last one to air before the election) with Solange serving as musical guest.