Overnight Ratings: SNL Music Doc Is Tops in Demo

First on LateNighter: Up against the likes of NCIS on CBS and The Bachelor on ABC, NBC’s three-hour primetime Saturday Night Live music documentary took home top honors Monday night in TV’s all-important 18-49 demo.

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Ladies and Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music drew an average total audience of nearly 3.5 million viewers over its three-hour timeslot.

That number is likely to grow significantly as delayed viewing data streams in over the coming days and weeks. Also not included in Neilsen’s overnight ratings data are streaming views on Peacock and other platforms.

Co-directed by Questlove and Oz Rodriguez, Ladies and Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music takes an expansive look at Saturday Night Live‘s musical history, kicking off with an epic 7-minute mashup of musical performances from the show, from Billy Preston to Dua Lipa and beyond. As LateNighter’s Bill Carter pointed out in his review of the special, music rights have kept many of the performances featured in the documentary hidden from public view for decades.

The special’s strong ratings come on the heels of an upward ratings trajectory for Saturday Night Live proper in recent weeks, which would seem to bode well for the show’s highly-anticipated 50th Anniversary Special, which is set to air in primetime Sunday, February 16, 2025.

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1 Comment

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  1. Linda Hill says:

    I will be able to watch all the late night shows the very next day!