Lorne Michaels and team have yet another reason to celebrate, with NBC sharing more viewing data for Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary programming last weekend—this time including several days of delayed viewing and streams across NBC’s digital properties and social media.
As of Friday February 21st, the network says 220 million viewers had watched some portion of its three official SNL50 broadcasts: The Homecoming Concert, The Red Carpet, and The Anniversary Special itself.
All told, NBC says content from the three specials has been viewed a total of 3.9 billion minutes (and counting)
The new numbers shine a light on the proportion of viewers consuming late-night programming on broadcast vs other platforms. Counting delayed viewing, 16 million viewers watched the anniversary special on NBC proper, enough to make it the most watched entertainment show on NBC in five years.
An additional four million watched it on Peacock, upping that number to 20 million. And more than ten times that number watched some portion of the show and/or the other two SNL specials via one of NBC’s other digital channels (including NBC.com, YouTube, and social media).
For NBC and other legacy media outlets, which continue to shed viewers amid the dramatic shift to streaming, flagship live events like SNL50, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and sports programming that continue to draw large audiences offer unique marketing opportunities for advertisers that extend far beyond the event itself.
As Variety reported Sunday, NBC has already sold out of its linear and streaming ad inventory through the end of SNL’s 50th season, delivering “record-setting revenue for any SNL season in the history of the franchise,” per the network.
NBC says it’s seen increased advertiser interest in live/timely programming across the board, citing the Today show and The Tonight Show alongside SNL as unique opportunities for advertisers to reach consumers on a broad scale right before an event.
“We’re starting to see marketers come back to this idea of saying, ‘I need to reach someone on Tuesday, because I need them to be able to show up on Thursday to come see a movie,’ or whatever that might be,” Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships, told Variety.
NBC isn’t alone in its renewed focus on live programming. Streamers like Amazon and Netflix, which are now competing with NBC for ad dollars, have also begun streaming live sports and—in Netflix’s case—even live talk shows. Last May’s John Mulaney-hosted Everybody’s in L.A. generated significant buzz and apparently enough viewership to justify signing Mulaney to host two seasons of a new weekly show titled Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, premiering next week.
The next test for NBC will be to see whether last weekend’s huge numbers for SNL‘s 50th anniversary specials have a halo effect on ratings for regular episodes of the show. Saturday Night Live returns with the first of two new episodes this coming Saturday March 1st, with host Shane Gillis and musical guest Tate McRae.
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