Saturday Night Live won’t be in the demo itself when it premieres its 50th season in September, but when it comes to viewers 18-49, the NBC sketch show is still tops.
With the final numbers now in for the 2023-24 broadcast season, SNL is officially the season’s top rated entertainment series across broadcast and cable TV among viewers 18-49. For the fifth year running, it’s also TV’s highest-rated comedy series in the demo.
The good news for Lorne Michaels and team doesn’t end there. While most shows saw year-over-year ratings declines as younger audiences continue to migrate online, the 2023-24 season was an up year for SNL, with the show averaging 7.2 million viewers weekly, up 3% from last season.
The show’s top-rated installment this season was the Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton episode on April 13th, which attracted 8.9 million total linear viewers.
According to NBC, the same episode drew a whopping 107.3 million views online, led by the “Beavis and Butt-Head” sketch which was the season’s most viewed clip on YouTube with 15.8 million views.
Overall, NBC says the season’s social video views are up 36% compared to last season.
Earlier this month, NBC announced that it’s throwing a “seven-month long party” to celebrate SNL‘s 50th, including a November election special, new holiday specials, a documentary series, multi-part music specials, and a comedy special at Radio City Music Hall.
The live, 3-hour SNL50 Primetime Special will air as part of a “celebratory weekend” on Sunday, February 16, 2025 from 8-11pm ET. The show—and red-carpet event—will “welcome stars of past and present to 8H,” according to the network.
