‘SNL50’ nabs almost 15 million viewers, ‘Dope Thief’ trailer, and more of today’s top stories
Gold Derby’s top news stories for Feb. 18, 2025.
SNL50 scores nearly 15 million viewers
Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special SNL50: The Anniversary Special drew 14.8 million viewers across NBC and Peacock on Sunday, making it the network’s most-watched entertainment telecast since 18.33 million people tuned into the 2020 Golden Globes. The three-and-a-half-hour extravaganza now ranks second for the second-biggest audience for a non-sports primetime broadcast in the 2024-25 season behind the Grammys, which earned 15.4 million viewers. A regular SNL episode pulls about 4.9 million viewers on a same-day season average. SNL50‘s preceding red carpet special drew 6.5 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, and E!
Watch the Dope Thief trailer
Apple TV+ dropped the trailer for Dope Thief, its new eight-episode drama starring Brian Tyree Henry and executive-produced by Ridley Scott. Based on Dennis Tafoya’s book of the same name and created by Peter Craig, Dope Thief follows longtime Philly friends and delinquents who pose as DEA agents to rob an unknown house in the countryside. However, their grift becomes “a life-and-death enterprise, as they unwittingly reveal and unravel the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern seaboard,” per the logline. The cast includes Wagner Moura, Marin Ireland, Kate Mulgrew, Nesta Cooper, Amir Arison, Dustin Nguyen, and Ving Rhames. Scott directed the first episode. The first two episodes will premiere on Friday, March 14, followed by new episodes every Friday through April 25.
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The White Lotus hits new premiere high
Sunday’s Season 3 premiere of The White Lotus scored 2.4 million cross-platform viewers, making it the anthology series’ biggest premiere same-day audience thus far. The number is 57 percent higher than the premiere night for Season 2 (1.5 million) and 155 percent higher than Season 1 (944k). After 36 hours, the premiere has doubled the Season 2 premiere episode during the same amount of time in the U.S. and has grown 90 percent since Sunday night for domestic audience to 4.6 million cross-platform viewers.
Conclave clears $100 million at global box office
Conclave will cross the $100 million mark at the worldwide box office this week, days after it won Best Picture at the BAFTA Awards, marking a major achievement for a film targeted at adult audiences. As of Monday, the eight-time Best Picture nominee has grossed $98.5 million total, of which $66.3 million comes from international markets and $32.2 million hails from North America. “This is such a personal film for me, so to hear how it has connected with and entertained so many movie lovers around the world makes me very happy,” director Edward Berger said in a statement. “I am very grateful to our incredible partners releasing Conclave who have helped this film reach its utmost potential.”
Nickel Boys tops Black Reel Awards
Nickel Boys led Monday’s Black Reel Awards with six wins, including Outstanding Film and Outstanding Director for RaMell Ross. The drama, which is up for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, also won Outstanding Screenplay, Outstanding Emerging Director, Outstanding First Screenplay, and Outstanding Cinematography. The Piano Lesson collected four prizes: the gender-neutral supporting performance award for Danielle Deadwyler, ensemble, hairstyling & makeup, and production design. Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths) won for her lead performance, while Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing) took home breakthrough performance honors. Hard Truths also won Outstanding International Film.
Other winners were Wicked (soundtrack, costume design), The Wild Robot (voice performance for Lupita Nyong’o, score), We Grown Now (independent film, editing), The Six Triple Eight (original song for “The Journey”), Luther: Never Too Much (documentary), and Chocolate with Sprinkles (short film).
Watch The Brutalist at home now
The Brutalist is now available to watch from the comfort of your home on VOD platforms. The 10-time Oscar nominee is available for purchase to stream at $19.99. A24 has no announced a physical media release date for the film yet, but you can also pre-order it on Blu-ray & 4K UHD.
Queer lands streaming date
Luca Guadagnino‘s Queer will make its streaming debut on Max on Friday, March 28. It will air on HBO the following day at 8/7c. While the A24 drama did not receive any acting nominations, Daniel Craig received bids at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and Screen Actors Guild Awards for his lead turn.
Lady Gaga reveals Mayhem tracklist
Lady Gaga unveiled the tracklist for her new album Mayhem, out March 7. The album features 14 tracks, including singles “Disease,” “Abracadabra,” and “Die With a Smile” with Bruno Mars. Gesaffelstein is the only other feature on the album, on the track “Killah.” At the end of the social video accompanying the announcement, two bonus tracks, “Kill For Love” and “Can’t Stop the High,” are revealed to be part of the album.
Paul Simon un-retires for new tour
Paul Simon is coming out of a seven-year retirement for a four-month North American tour of intimate venues. Dubbed A Quiet Celebration, the tour will kick off starting April 4 in New Orleans and end August 3 in Seattle. It’ll cover 20 cities over 55 dates, with stops in Los Angeles, New York City, and Nashville. See the full list of dates here.
Last Week Tonight resumes next-day posting on YouTube
You no longer have to wait until Thursdays to watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver if you miss it on Sundays. HBO has resumed posting next-day clips on YouTube starting with the main segment of Sunday’s Season 12 premiere. Last year, the network pushed Last Week Tonight‘s YouTube posts from Mondays to Thursdays in an effort to boost viewership on Max. HBO did not see a significant change in viewership after the delay, according to TVLine. Oliver did not agree with the delay and wrote on social media at the time, “I know I usually share a link to our main story here on Mondays, but HBO has decided they’re going to wait until Thursday to post them to YouTube from now on. I hope they change their mind.” In September, the host told the New York Times the delay was “massively frustrating.” “What I love about having the show on YouTube is that we can reach beyond HBO subscribers. That feels really important to me,” Oliver said. “I really, really appreciate the fact that they do that. I would rather they did it straight after the show the way we’ve always done it, but I’m very grateful that they are willing to still do it at all.”
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