‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings: Dakota Johnson (of course) falls far short of anniversary show

It really is not fair to compare “Saturday Night Live” last night to the 40th Anniversary Special. That was a chance to see so many old favorites after many years, and it also had the luxury of airing in primetime.

As for last night’s show hosted by Dakota Johnson, let’s just remind you that it had zero cameos, it was hosted by a woman best known for only one movie in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and it had a musical guest in Alabama Shakes who are not exactly mainstream. None of this suggested that there would be good ratings, and the 1.9 in the 18-49 demographic proves that. This is the lowest rating for the show since the start of 2015, and it is probably not the best way to set up the next 40 years of entertainment. Then again, we could say the same thing about the show as a whole; Johnson at times tried, but the writers gave her very little to do the majority of the time.

Next week, there is at least a chance at some sort of redemption for the show’s ratings. Chris Hemsworth will be the host, and he has been well-known for at least a reasonable amount of time. He’s mostly only known as “Thor,” but we still feel like the possibility for other Avenger cameos will lead to slightly better numbers. Also, you have a musical guest in Zac Brown Band who are very big in the county community. That’s a big demographic! Then again, not too many of them seemed to tune in to when Blake Shelton was the host earlier this year.

Hopefully, we’ll have more news on some other upcoming hosts in the near future.

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