“Saturday Night Live” ratings plummeted this weekend, which is no surprise.
Total viewers were just 3.7 million. That’s down 300,000 from last week. “SNL” rarely if ever goes under the 4 mil mark, so this is alarming.
Brendan Gleeson was the host, and Willow Smith was the musical star. He was terrific, she was…uniquely awful. Colin Farrell made a surprise appearance, which made us think why wasn’t he the host? (No offense to Gleeson, but he’s not a draw.)
The show itself wasn’t terrible. But Cecily Strong is still out west appearing in Los Angeles theater. She posted a cryptic message to Instagram that said nothing about her return to “SNL.” I don’t think it’s clear she’s coming back.
There’s also the weird situation of James Austin Johnson, who should have been promoted to the main cast. It seems kind of an insult that he’s been left in the featured players group. JAJ should have been moved up instantly.
Not a great episode or moment in “SNL” history. The show has no leading man, which might help. Mikey Day, who I guess fills that role de facto, was also a little MIA. Very strange stuff.
PS My favorite piece was a filmed one about Lorne welcoming the new cast, but telling Molly Kearney she had to kill Vladimir Putin. Kearney did very well with it, the best so far of the new gang.
Just going back to Willow: what the heck was that? Does she have an English accent now? Is she trying to make a Pretenders record? As a performer, she makes no contact with the audience. Her performance was all about self excitement.
