Despite that strong return content wise last night, “SNL” is still suffering viewer apathy.
Last night’s Season 47 premiere had just 3.5 million viewers, which was the same for the last two episodes of Season 46 last May.
But the Owen Wilson-Kacey Musgraves opener brought in less than half of what Chris Rock did for the Season 46 premiere. Rock’s show came in at around 7.5 million.
Of course, last year at this time the election made “SNL” hot, and there was huge demand for political comedy. The Rock show was also the first one back in the studio after the pandemic had made “SNL” virtual.
But the ratings last season dropped precipitously after the election was over. By January they’d leveled off to a regular “SNL” rating of 4.1 million. But then, after Nick Jonas hosted on February 27th, around 500,000 fans left and never came back. Why? Who knows?
Much as I liked Musgraves last night, she wasn’t a boffo opening act for a season premiere. Where was Lady Gaga and her Tony Bennett material? Ah, well, the machinations of booking would give us all ulcers. I’m curious to see how Kim Kardashian fares next week. Her appearance is pandering for ratings. Let’s see if she can improve the numbers. (I doubt it.)
Onward and upward!
