We’re not surprised at all — but vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live delievered the show’s largest metered market household ratings since 1994. Over the 56 measured local markets, the show averaged a 10.7/24 (household rating/share). The full press release from NBC is below or you can watch the video clips of her appearance.
WITH A SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY GOV. SARAH PALIN, ‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’ SOARS TO ITS HIGHEST OVERNIGHTS IN 14 YEARS
IT’S THE TOP-SCORING ‘SNL’ IN METERED-MARKET HOUSEHOLDS SINCE MARCH 12, 1994
WITH HOST JOSH BROLIN, MUSICAL GUEST ADELE AND SPECIAL APPEARANCES BY MARK WAHLBERG, ALEC BALDWIN, TINA FEY AND OLIVER STONE, ‘SNL’ JUMPS 161 PERCENT ABOVE YEAR-AGO RESULTS
WITH AN UNPRECEDENTED EARLY START TO ITS ‘08-09 SEASON, ‘SNL’ IS RUNNING 76 PERCENT AHEAD OF THE OPENING WEEKS OF LAST SEASON
BURBANK, Calif. – October 19, 2008 – With its highly anticipated appearance by Vice Presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, “Saturday Night Live” has soared to its highest metered-market household rating in more than 14 years.
Last night’s telecast, hosted by Josh Brolin and featuring musical guest Adele, averaged a 10.7 rating, 24 share in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen Media Research. “Saturday Night Live” towered over all late-night and primetime programs last night with the show’s highest average in metered-market households since the telecast of March 12, 1994 (hosted by Nancy Kerrigan with musical guest Aretha Franklin).
Last night’s edition of “Saturday Night Live” featured Palin appearing as herself in the opening sketch alongside executive producer Lorne Michaels, surprise guests Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg, as well as Palin’s “SNL” doppelganger, Tina Fey. Palin also appeared during the “Weekend Update” segment. Oliver Stone, director of the current theatrical release “W,” made a cameo appearance during the monologue of host Brolin, who stars in “W.”
Counting all primetime and late-night telecasts on all networks so for this week, “Saturday Night Live” has delivered the #3 rating of the week in the metered markets behind only Monday’s “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC (12.0/18) and Thursday’s “CSI” on CBS (11.2/17).
Versus “Saturday Night Live’s” average for originals last October (4.1/10), last night’s telecast is up 161 percent. Versus the most recent original this season (7.3/18 on October 4), the October 18 edition is up 47 percent.
For its five originals so far this season, “Saturday Night Live” is averaging a 7.4/18 in metered-market households. That’s up 76 percent versus the 4.2/10 “SNL” was averaging at this point last year with its three originals.
“Saturday Night Live” premiered two weeks earlier this season than in recent years, an unprecedented scheduling move designed to take advantage of intense interest in the 2008 election campaign. NBC will also air “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday” this Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET and “Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008,” which will feature vintage and new material showcasing “SNL’s” presidential satire, from 9-11 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, the night before the election.
the fey baldwin palin news update rap song stuff was great… and i’m all about the fact that snl is obviously still significant and funny especially to the audience they are targeting… but i’m a little shocked they didn’t do more political sketches outside of the opening. i don’t get it. they had to know the hordes of people tuning in were politically savvy yet they chose to do 20 year old macgyver jokes instead. maybe the extra edition on thursday is a bit too much and sucked some of the spark away from the regular show. i just hope they keep up the political stuff after the election.
Come on now, Tina Fey deserves some credit for drawing high viewership.
Sarah Palin reminds me of William Hung, the American Idol contestant, who turned his take-me-serious performance into a months-long comedy run and became a quasi-celebrity for it. Sure, Sarah Palin is a lot “hotter” than William Hung, but both have exhibited confidence, a delivery that could not be ignored, and a blind spot for what they failed to bring to the competition.
Sarah Palin could kick Paris Hilton out of her spot as a celebrity royale. She might have her sights on Paris. Afterall, Paris did diss old dude McCain a couple weeks ago.
I don’t watch SNL any more, since it is no longer funny. Too bad I missed this one… oh, well.
Tom, unfortunately for SNL I think their best political stuff is Poehler/Clinton and Fey/Palin. After the election both are out of the news.
El Miner, indeed Tina Fey does deserve a lot of the credit. Her appearances as Palin without Palin were also among the best rated episodes in years. But, her appearance WITH Palin got almost 50% more viewership that her last appearance without Palin, so I have to also give a lot of credit to current star power of Sarah Palin.
It’s just curiousity for something strange. Just like Nancy Kerrigan got in 1994.
If somehow McCain wins the TV networks have a great cow to milk, maybe they’ll do a sitcom, who knows? If Obama wins Palin is history, and everything goes back to normal for SNL.
PS: yesterday they didn’t laugh with Sarah Palin, they laughed AT Sarah Palin with her standing there. Alac Baldwin trashed her.
bill… there’s always something juicy going on in politics… as well as current events which is what i think this is more about. there’s always one event that drives the news and they should try to stay on that after the election… not just in news update but in sketches. be it politics or whatever grabs everyone’s attention. what sucks is poehler is gone soon. and even though it seems like fey is there… she’s not. but it’s funny because i always worry when good people leave snl and then i think there’s no way they can go on without… (belushi, murphy, hatman, meyers, fey) but there’s always somebody right behind them that comes out of nowhere… poehler didn’t really come into her own until she took over news update. so it will be fun to see who comes to the front of the line.
Can Sarah Palin get down or what I saw her raising the roof during that Palin rap i’m not voting for her but i’ll dance with at da club anyday LOL
tom, I do agree that their political stuff is funnier to me than everything else they do, but that’s almost certainly because [at 48] I’m out of their target audience. My guess is that their big ratings boost this fall, fueled by the political sketches, were all folks like me who’d otherwise never watch the show. After the election, politics won’t be topical enough for them, and all of us will stop watching.
Come on, Obama or McCain are too boring to make fun of them. Especially Obama, every attempt to spoof him simply fails.
bill… just 2 years away from being insignificant. wow. thank god i’m still in my 30’s and advertisers still want my money.
ratings will obviously go down after the election… but i really think if they stay current they can keep some of the younger ones tuning in. but they have to stop with the lawrence welk, mary popins and macgyver stuff. i can’t imagine that’s what 20 year olds wanna see. but i have to admit the welk thing was funny and twisted.
Way back in the beginnings of SNL when I was part of the target audience their political skits were always funny. It is easier to write material based on something tangible.
I don’t care for Gov. Palin but she seemed to be a good sport last night. Actually I think Amy Poehler stole the show with the flirty bar skit and the Palin rap. And yes, the show without Fey and Poehler will be poorer. They were the glue that held the show together.
As has always been the case the weakest part of SNL is the final twenty minutes of sketches. I wish they would find a formula to strengthen that. Maybe they just figure that not too many people are watching toward the end. Wisely they have been moving Weekend Update closer to the end of the show,
And come on Bill, you are selling yourself short, funny is funny. Age has nothing to do with it.
Even when we were young and in the youth culture loop a lot of the SNL skits misfired. It is hard to come up with material for a show like this, especially when they are doubling up because of the election. Some of this material is just bad.
Catherine, I wasn’t selling myself short as much as giving SNL the benefit of the doubt. The Fey/Palin/Poehler/Clinton skits got me to watch the show, and I tried watching the rest, but couldn’t endure anything else. I kept telling myself, this can’t be as woeful as I think it is, someone has got to think this is funny.
tom, I am at peace with my soon to be advertising irrelevancy. Namaste.
@Jackie
How can you stand yourself? Really.
it’s sad when people like jackie bring the conversation down to a low level. takes the fun out of it.
It’ll be interesting if Michaels can get his wish to have McCain, Obama and Biden all appear in the next two weeks. If he can, they could probably stay in the 7.0-8.0 range, before quickly falling back into the 4.0 range they’ve been in before this season.
If anything, I just hope this somehow helps 30 Rock at least perform adequately in order to keep it alive. That’s ALL I ask. Please?
Jackie, we’re willing to let an awful lot go by in our comments, but racism is over the line.
It takes Sarah Palin (a republican ) to turn this shows ratings around. GE Corp
needs to takes account of this . We need to bring back Jack Welch and put
him back at the helm. COME BACK JACK…..!!!!!
After the election, and Obama and Biden apparently win, the only sketch SNL could play is the winners as undertakers!! Oh wait..that’s not funny…and the joke is on America.
Bob is talking about Obama being too boring to make fun of. This isn’t true.
Several scripts come to mind. Like having him step away from the podium then walk backstage into a Chairman Mao themed set where a panel of Chicoms praise or critique his delivery giving him pointers for the next campaign stop.
Or howabout Obama walking through a middle class neighborhood running into one Republican homeowner after the other, each of which are cut off by a gang tackling secret service detail just as they ask an embarassing question which the socialist Obama can’t afford to answer.
See stuff like that would be hillarious, becaue it’s so close to true.
Ok so Obama is giving his stump speech from a podium. The crowd is really digging it cheering at all the right places. Barry is reading off a teleprompter but it’s presence isn’t obtrusive. Then he ends his speech and starts to move toward the rope line to shake hands, kiss babies and such. At this point we see that the teleprompter is a mobile unit which Obama is wearing around mounted on a backpack with a harness. _ Hysterically funny. Then as he is shmoozing with the crown people can get tankled in the contraption, he could start talking quicker then normal to keep up with the script rolling too fast. Or speak slower with plenty of “uhs” and “ahs” as the aparatus variably malfunctions
Depictions of Obama like that would keep SNL ratings up – the operative provision would be “keeping it real”. Because SNL can’t afford to pander to their switched on political junky audience.
Watch the ratings go back in the tank next week. I don’t watch any of the networks except for local news and an occasional sports event. NBC is a disaster. Sorry I ever bought GE stock.
each of which are cut off by a gang tackling secret service detail just as they ask an embarassing question which the socialist Obama can’t afford to answer.
I think you are confusing the story where Sarah Palin’s Secret Service guards have been keeping the media away from her and the crowds.
I think you are confusing the story where Sarah Palin’s Secret Service guards have been keeping the media away from her and the crowds.
Yes Julia I believe that particular fiction was invented by Dana Milbank. It’s been debunked – http://www.propublica.org/article/secret-service-denies-blocking-reporters-at-palin-rallies-1017/ – but still your comment presents a challenge to my funnybone.
Ok – a media boardroom. Several news types are sitting around a table brainstorming the next outrageous McCain/Palin op/ed they can present as real news. Slowly the camera pulls back to revealing the boardroom to be enclosed in a goldfish bowl. A giant sized Obama taps the glass.
Tadoocha!
http://www.propublica.org/article/secret-service-denies-blocking-reporters-at-palin-rallies-1017/
Reporters are in the tank. Making up stuff out of whole cloth.
Which lends itself to another SNL skit.
Scene – a media boardroom where newsmen are brainstorming the next McCain/Palin smear disguised as hardnews. The camera pulls back to show the boardroom is really a goldfish bowl. Then it pulls back further to show the goldfish bowl is sitting on an endtable next to Obama. He casually reaches over and taps the glass saying “Get to work in there.”
You should really go work for SNL. Your skits are about as funny as theirs usually are!
After much noise from the media saying America is over Palin…it seems to me the media still need to do some “fact checking” on themselves…Palin seems to bring in the numbers no matter where she goes or what she does…
Except in the polls, amirite, RG?
Unfortunately, I missed Saturday night’s episode with the real Sarah Palin, so thanks for the link to the two clips from the show. I must say, I couldn’t tell the difference between Tina Fey and the real Sarah Palin; Tina does a great job as Sarah Palin. Now I’m off to surf the Web to see if I can find a place where I can watch the full episode of SNL.
Palin’s a good looking woman, but I think looks alone aren’t really enough to qualify you as the leader of the free world. An a non-american, I’m glad that the republicans got beat, I have no real issue with McCain, but god forbid something should happen to him and Palin ends up the most powerful person on the planet!