It has been 35 years since Eddie Murphy was last on Saturday Night Live but the prolific comedic actor returned to host the show on Saturday to stellar reviews and, now that the ratings report is in, it appears many viewers were also eagerly anticipating his return.
Saturday Night Live scored its biggest ratings in years with Eddie Murphy running the show. His highly anticipated return to host SNL delivered a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 9.921 million viewers overall in Live+Same Day. This is the best showing for the NBC program in two and a half years.
The last time SNL saw numbers of this caliber was for the May 13, 2017 telecast hosted by Melissa McCarthy with musical guest HAIM. The episode scored a 2.7 in the 18-49 demo and was watched by 10.382 million total viewers. Eddie Murphy’s episode on Saturday featured appearances Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Larry David, Maya Rudolph, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen and Rachel Dratch with musical guest, Lizzo.
Viewership for last night’s show will continue to grow since about 29% of SNL’s total-viewer minutes during the 2018-19 season come on digital platforms through short-form videos and full-episode views.
