First on LateNighter: James Talarico‘s winning streak on late-night YouTube continues.
Just two days after the Texas senator-elect’s surprise appearance in Saturday Night Live‘s post-election cold open, the sketch has become the show’s most-watched YouTube video of Season 52.
As of Monday afternoon, the clip had already surpassed 10 million views, overtaking the season two previous YouTube leaders: the show’s “Republican Midterm Ads” cold open from early October, and its “Dream Academy” spoof featuring KATSEYE, both of which have drawn just over 8 million views.
This weekend’s cold open saw Talarico interrupt James Austin Johnson‘s Donald Trump, poke fun at the show’s recurring Trump-freezing gag, and deliver the show’s iconic opening line.
It’s the latest example of what might be called the Talarico effect on late-night YouTube.
Back in February, an interview with Talarico that CBS kept off The Late Show with Stephen Colbert amid FCC equal-time concerns went on to become Colbert’s most-watched YouTube interview in seven years.
In September, history repeated itself when Jimmy Kimmel Live! moved its own Talarico interview to YouTube amid similar concerns. That conversation became Kimmel’s most-watched interview on the platform in five years.
Of course, both of those interviews benefited from the publicity surrounding their exclusion from broadcast television. Saturday’s SNL appearance came just four days after Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since 1988.
There’s another irony in the latest YouTube milestone: It came on a weekend when SNL was hosted by Druski, the comedian who built his following online.
To be fair to Druski, he appears to be winning the popularity contest on his home turf. On TikTok, clips featuring the viral comic from Saturday’s episode have drawn considerably more views than Talarico’s cold open.
