Thursday, March 28, 2024

“SNL” Ratings Update: Season Premiere Down More than 50% from Last Year’s, Even with End of Season 46

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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!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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