‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings: Taraji P. Henson scores larger household rating

Did “Saturday Night Live” receive a massive bump thanks to “Empire”? This was certainly something that we were very intrigued to discover prior to the new episode airing this weekend, and we’ve now got a somewhat-mixed response.

While it may not matter much to advertisers compared to the 18-49 demographic, “SNL” posted its highest household rating for this episode since the one hosted by Chris Hemsworth earlier this season. However, in the demo the show brought in a 1.9 rating, which is down slightly from the show hosted by Michael Keaton. Given that Keaton is slightly less relevant to young audiences today save for “Birdman” and “Empire” is a beast in the demo, what we really take away from this above all else is that unless you are Justin Timberlake or another iconic host, it really does not matter who is at the front of the show. You still have to dive in and check out the episode for the other cast members and the sketches, and this show had a little bit of a slower start.

When “SNL” returns to the air on May 2, it is going to be doing so with an installment hosted by none other than Scarlett Johansson, making her fourth appearance in this gig in the first in the past several years. Given that she is a big-name movie star, we feel reasonably confident that she will bring in pretty good ratings. We just have to see now who the three hosts who follow her are going to be. It is a recent tradition to give us at least one alumni late in the season, so we hope that remains a constant here, as well.

If you missed it, head over here to read our full review of this weekend’s episode!

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