Charli XCX SNL Delivers Smallest Audience Season-to-Date

First on LateNighter: Saturday Night Live continued to see a post-election ratings slide for the seventh episode of its landmark 50th season

With British pop star Charli XCX pulling double-duty as host and musical guest this past week, SNL drew 4,286,000 total viewers to NBC, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data for November 16, 2024. That’s the show’s smallest live-plus-same-day audience season to-date, and its smallest since the May 18, 2024 episode (4,206,000 viewers). That was the SNL Season 49 finale hosted by Jake Gyllenhaal with musical guest Sabrina Carpenter.

The Nov. 16 SNL shed 138,000 total viewers (or -3%) from the previous week’s episode, which was hosted by comedian Bill Burr with musical guest Mk.gee. However, the episode did gain 63,000 total viewers (or +1%) over the year-ago SNL (Dec. 9, 2023), which was hosted by Adam Driver with musical guest Olivia Rodrigo.

Among viewers in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, this past week’s SNL also struggled, averaging 863,000 viewers. That’s SNL‘s smallest live-plus-same-day delivery in the demo since the March 30, 2024 episode, which was hosted by Ramy Youssef featuring musical guest Travis Scott.

This past week’s SNL dropped 104,000 P18-49 viewers (or -11%) from the previous week’s episode, and -60,000 P18-49 viewers (or -7%) from the year-ago episode.

Note that all of the numbers above (for this week and past episodes for comparison) are same-day-plus-live measurements. Average episode viewership will increase once delayed-viewing Nielsen data arrives in the coming days.

Saturday Night Live is on hiatus through the Thanksgiving holiday, returning on Dec. 7 with a couple of SNL first-timers front and center: Gladiator II star Paul Mescal as host, and Shaboozey as musical guest.