‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings: Chris Hemsworth, Chance the Rapper show draws low numbers

This weekend has not been a particularly kind one for Chris Hemsworth. The actor’s new movie “In the Heart of the Sea” bombed at the North American box office, and his edition of “Saturday Night Live” was also a bummer in the ratings. We predicted it would drop to a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic beforehand, but it went even lower than that.

In the end, “SNL” drew only a 1.8 rating, its lower number of the season so far, but at the same time still enough to win Saturday easily. The show is not in any danger of going anywhere, and can handle a few lower-rated outings last this every season. The reality here is that we actually enjoyed Hemsworth’s show more than last week’s with Ryan Gosling, but there were a few things working against him:

1. Gosling hasn’t done “SNL” before, so there was more curiosity. He also hasn’t been in the press that much.

2. That show was the first one coming off a hiatus, while this one was not.

3. Audiences may have scheduled their holiday parties this weekend so that they can stay home next week to watch Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

The winter finale featuring these two ladies on December 19 is the one expected to draw big numbers for NBC. Our guess for now is that it’ll hit the 2.4-2.5 range, and there will probably be a number of cameos thrown in there as well. We wouldn’t be shocked if both Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon appear for the first time in a while. This actually isn’t the first appearance from Fey on “SNL” this season, as she appeared during the Tracy Morgan show.

You can head over here right now to read our review and watch videos from this episode! Also, you can sign up over here to get some other TV scoop on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)