Jean Smart kicked off Saturday Night Live‘s milestone 50th anniversary with the late night show’s best season opener audience since the last Presidential election cycle.
The episode, which also featured Jelly Roll as the musical guest, drew 5.3M viewers on NBC in live same-day viewing, according to Nielsen data. That is the most for a season premiere since 2020 when Chris Rock hosted with Megan Thee Stallion as the musical guest.
According to NBCUniversal, the episode ranks as the most-watched SNL ever on Peacock through its first weekend.
This is a solid start to the season, and it’s likely to go up from here, as there are some more high-profile guests in the coming weeks. The episode’s audience is up about half a million from Season 49’s opener, which managed 4.8M viewers.
Nate Bargatze hosts on October 5 with Coldplay as the musical guest. Then, Ariana Grande, Michael Keaton and John Mulaney are set as hosts as SNL kicks off with five consecutive shows.
Grande will be joined by Fleetwood Mac legend Stevie Nicks on October 12. Keaton will be joined by Billie Eilish on October 19, and former SNL star Mulaney returns to host on November 2 with Chappell Roan as musical guest.
