Saturday Night Live has enjoyed gangbusters ratings so far this season, aided in no small part by a series of star-packed election-themed cold opens.
NBC no doubt hoped some of that ratings magic would rub off on an election eve clip show comprised almost entirely of those cold opens, but numbers for Monday night’s SNL 2024 Election Special were mixed at best.
To be fair, the hour-long special faced stiff competition in its 10:00pm timeslot, up against Monday Night Football on ABC, and a new episode of NCIS: Origins on CBS.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the SNL special averaged 3,060,000 total viewers. That’s a slight improvement (+5%) relative to NBC’s Monday 10pm 2024 averages to date, but it wasn’t enough to beat NCIS: Origins, which drew 3,517,000 total viewers on CBS. Predictably, Monday Night Football’s numbers were far greater, drawing a three-hour average of 10,863,000 total viewers.
It was a slightly rosier picture among viewers in the advertiser-coveted 19-49 demo, where the SNL 2024 Election Special drew 452,000 viewers, also up 5% vs the network’s 10pm Monday 2024 average, which was enough to beat CBS’ NCIS: Origins by 70,000 viewers. Monday Night Football roundly won the time period with a three-hour P18-49 average of 2,571,00.
Note that all of the numbers above (including time period averages) are same-day-plus-live measurements. Viewership will increase for all measured shows once delayed-viewing Nielsen data arrives in the coming days.
Saturday Night Live returns with a new live episode this weekend with host Bill Burr alongside musical guest Mk.gee.
Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.
None of these shows are reaching people in the 18-49 year bracket. Bill Burr is so fake now and an SJW. Sad.