SNL50 Anniversary Special Draws Nearly 15 Million Viewers, Gives NBC a 5-Year High
At the SNL50 concert on Friday night, a high-ranking NBC exec asked me what I thought the viewership would be for the actual three-hour anniversary special airing/streaming on Sunday night.
I said 15 million.
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Missed it by thatmuch.
The star-studded SNL50: The Anniversary Special, which aired live from Studio 8H on Sunday night, drew 14.8 million total viewers across both NBC and Peacock, making it NBC’s most-watched primetime entertainment telecast in five years (since the 2020 Golden Globes).
In the demo, the special scored a 2.53 rating, also marking a five-year high.
TVLine readers gave the sketch comedy series’ milestone outing an average grade of “B+”; revisit all of the sketches and musical performances here.
SNL: 25 Times a Celebrity Confronted Their Impression on Air — Watch Video
Zeroing in on just the early streaming numbers (though no actual numbers were furnished by NBC), SNL50: The Anniversary Special stands as the fourth-most watched entertainment simulcast on Peacock, trailing only three telecasts of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The hour-long red carpet special that preceded the event drew 6.5 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and E!
Meanwhile, Friday night’s aforementioned SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Peacock delivered nearly twice the average reach of a Season 50 SNL episode over a three-day period, though again, no specific data points were furnished.
The Live+Same Day numbers reported in TVLine’s daily-ish ratings column do NOT reflect a television program’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution
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