Wednesday, May 20, 2026

“Saturday Night Live” Falls Below 4 Million Viewers with Sabrina Carpenter– But It’s Not Her Fault

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“SNL” is having ratings issues.

This past weekend numbers fell just under 4 million viewers.

The host and musical guest was Sabrina Carpenter. But don’t blame her for the poor showing.

The show was simply not good, not funny, the cold open was dreadful, avoiding politics. The audience expects Donald Trump aka James Austin Johnson..but he didn’t turn up well into the broadcast.

The new writers are also not writing for the long term cast. They’re concentrating on the newbies, who are very uncertain. The audience is looking for familiar faces.

The ratings also weren’t helped by a delayed start thanks to a football game.

The next new show is in two weeks. Bowen Yang, missing this week, will be back. Miles Teller is the host.

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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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