Final stats are in: 9.3 million viewers caught Donald Trump‘s Saturday Night Live hosting gig. While not a GOP debate-sized crowd, it’s SNL’s biggest overall audience since 2013.
Specifically, Trump copped the NBC late-night show’s biggest crowd since the December 21, 2013 episode featuring Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake.
Trump’s performance among 18-49 year olds was the franchise’s best since January 24 of this year, featuring host and musical guest Blake Shelton. Preliminary stats had suggested Trump’s SNL demo stat would be SNL’s highest in close to two years.
In households, this past Saturday scored SNL’s highest rated broadcast since the January 7, 2012 episode featuring Charles Barkley and musical guest Kelly Clarkson on the night of an NFL Playoff overrun. This past Saturday’s edition logged a 2.34/10 in the demo and a 5.99/15 in households.
Thanks in some measure to Trump – or thanks entirely, according to Trump – this election cycle’s GOP debates have clocked eye-popping ratings, starting with Fox News Channel’s 24 million viewers for its debate, CNN’s 23M, CNBC’s 14M and, most recently, FBN’s 13.7M. Political navel lint gazers have attributed the gains to the addition of rubberneckers and reality-TV fans who’ve tune in to watch Trump swagger and attack other candidates – like this week’s debate on FBN when Trump wondered aloud why Carly Fiorina interrupts the guys so often, for which he got booed in the friends-of-GOP-papered hall.
Trump also worked his ratings magic for SNL, on a smaller scale. His hosting gig improved on SNL’s season-to-date averages for originals by 34% in 18-49 (2.34 vs. 1.75 L+SD) and 61% or 3.5 million persons in total viewers (9.272 million vs. 5.749 million).
These stats do not include the significant viewership SNL enjoys via time-shifting. This season, it’s growing by 51% this season going from L+SD to L+7 Day ratings in the demo (from 1.75 rating to a 2.65), for instance.
The best ratings for the worst episode. The tweeting sketch might be the most cringe-inducing mess in SNL’s history.
Donald or no Donald it was the worst installment of the season.