Wednesday, December 24, 2025

“SNL” Wraps Fall with Season High Ratings Featuring Ariana Grande, Cher, and Bowen Yang’s Long Goodbye: Up 145K Viewers

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I told you!

“SNL” went out on a high this week.

The show wrapped its fall season up 145,000 viewers from the week before.

The episode featured Ariana Grande, Cher, and the exit of Bowen Yang.

Total viewers were 540,000. The prior week had been just 3.95 million.

Cher was key to the success even though she lips synched her first song. Fans didn’t care. They’ve been downloading “Play a Christmas Song” ever since then, and it’s a hit on iTunes.

“SNL” struggles with hosts and musical guests always. Also, as a friend from TV points out, their numbers coincide with the weather. If it’s cold out, people stay in.

That should mean when “SNL” returns January 17th, Finn Wolfhard from “Stranger Things” and rapper-actor A$AP Rocky should be a big deal. Special guests could come from “ST” and maybe we’ll see Rihanna, Rocky’s wife or whatever, join in.

As for Bowen Yang, he’ll be missed as much as Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Michael Longfellow. No one likes change.

Now if someone could just convince not to marry her boytoy, or to make him an ironclad pre-nup, that would be a Christmas miracle!

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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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