Article Image

IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Television (TV)

'Saturday Night Live' Season Premiere Is Show's Lowest-Rated Opener in 5 Years

• https://www.thewrap.com, Jennifer Maas

"Saturday Night Live" kicked off its 45th season on Saturday with its lowest-rated season opener since 2014.

The episode, hosted by Woody Harrelson and featuring musical guest Billie Eilish, averaged a 4.1 rating/10 share household results in Live + Same Day data from Nielsen's 56 metered markets. It also received a 1.6/10 among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic in the 25 markets with local people meters tracked by Nielsen.

Those ratings are down 15% in households and 30 percent in adults 18-49 vs. from the Season 44 premiere episode (4.8 and 2.3) and mark the lowest rating posted by an "SNL" season premiere since Season 40 of the long-running NBC sketch show opened in 2014 to a 4.0 household rating in the metered markets and a 2.1/10 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with local people meters. That episode was hosted by "Jurassic World" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" star Chris Pratt.

Like most every other show on broadcast television that returned with the start of Fall TV last week, "SNL" is down versus its year-ago premiere, which for "SNL" came at the height of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and featured an opening with Matt Damon playing Kavanaugh.


JonesPlantation