Sunday, May 24, 2026

Surprise: “SNL” with John Mulaney Draws a Million Fewer Viewers Than Same Date Last Year

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Hunh. I’m very surprised.

“SNL” with John Mulaney scored 4.785 million viewers, which isn’t bad but not great. Nothing ro write home about

Indeed, Mulaney’s return, which was excellent, scored 1 million fewer viewers than the same night a year ago when Nick Jonas hosted the show. Jonas debuted two new songs that turned out to be total duds, as well as the album they came from. So who knows?

Mulaney’s show was also packed with guest stars including Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Paul Rudd, Tina Fey and so on. But maybe LCD Soundsystem, which I heard as discordant noise, wasn’t much of a draw. Or maybe it’s just that total viewership has gone down over the last year.

It’s not like Mulaney isn’t popular. Tickets for his shows are selling very well. A head scratcher for sure. I thought this episode was going to be up around 6 million.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is 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. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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