Murphy spikes SNL ratings

Highest viewership reported for ‘Saturday Night Live’ in more than a decade

EDDIE Murphy’s return to host Saturday Night Live (SNL) after 35 years has helped the show earn its highest ratings in 11 years.

The 58-year-old star brought back several of his characters, which helped the variety show earn 16.3 million total viewers, with Live+7 DVR playback factored in, according to a report from TVLine.

The impressive number is an audience high since the October 18, 2008 episode, in which former US vice-president Sarah Palin made a cameo appearance. Josh Brolin had hosted and Adele was the musical guest.

That 11-year-old episode had drawn 16.84 million, which was a 14-year high at the time.

The audience increased for Murphy’s episode by 6.3 million viewers, which is the largest gain of any broadcast-TV programme since Manifest’s November 5, 2018 episode, which added just under 7 million.

Last week, Deadline reported the original numbers in which the episode delivered a 2.5 rating, in the 18-49 demographic, with 9.921 million viewers in Live+Same Day.

Those numbers were the highest since the May 13, 2017 episode of SNL, hosted by Melissa McCarthy with musical guest HAIM, which earned a 2.7 rating in 18-49, with 10.382 million viewers.

The 2.5 rating in the allimportant 18-49 demographic also ties the Season 2 premiere of Fox’s The Masked Singer as the highestrated programme on any network.

It was also the highest-rated comedy programme since the series finale of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, which pulled a 3.2 rating in 18-49.

Murphy hosted with Lizzo as the musical guest, with guest appearances from Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Larry David, Maya Rudolph, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen and Rachel Dratch

The episode will also likely get a big boost from online viewing, with 29% of the show’s total viewed minutes coming from digital platforms.

Last week’s episode, hosted by Scarlett Johansson, generated 30.4 million views on YouTube, in the week since the episode debut.

For this week’s episode, there are already three videos with more than a million views – the cold open featuring the Democratic debate parody, Murphy’s monologue, and his Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood sketch.

Murphy joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1980 at the age of 19, and he helped revitalise the show through his four seasons.

He returned briefly for the 40th Anniversary special but he returned to true form in last night’s episode.

Murphy has also been getting rave reviews for his film Dolemite Is My Name, which is currently streaming on Netflix. He is also slated to return as Prince Akeem in Coming 2 America, a sequel to his 1988 comedy Coming To America.

He is also attached to star in Triplets, a long-gestating sequel to Twins, and another sequel to Beverly Hills Cop. | Daily Mail