This past Saturday’s “SNL” brought in 4.21 million total viewers, a little down from the 4.24 of the previous week.
Both shows were down 500,000 viewers from the previous two weeks. Jake Gyllenhaal was the final host, preceded by Maya Rudolph. Dua Lipa, Ryan Gosling, and Kristen Wiig preceded those episodes. The one before Wiig as Ramy Youssef – a total disaster with 3.9 million.
Does it matter? No. “SNL” is heading to its 50th anniversary this fall. There’ll be intense publicity leading up to the February 2025 celebration. There will also be be a lot of talk about whether or not Lorne Michaels will retire (no, I don’t think so). Will the whole cast be back in the fall? Probably. This whole gang really stepped up this year. Sarah Sherman and Marcello Hernandez are total breakout stars.
Why did Gyllenhaal not do better? If he’d been on when “Roadhouse” was out, that might have been more successful. He’d already peaked this year. Plus, why were there no send ups of his movies?
Jake did have some very good sketches, however. My favorite was the penultimate, which should have been in the first half hour. He played the chief of the NYPD at a press conference pleading with muggers to stop attacking character actors. Brilliant!
