‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings drop with Emily Blunt, Bruno Mars — but there’s still good news

“Saturday Night Live,” like one of many other things in life, is one of those things that you perhaps miss the most when it’s gone from the air. It tends to score its best ratings for premieres, finales, or other big events that have either been heavily-promoted, or are on the air after a little bit of time off.

With all of this in mind, we’re not too shocked to see the show hosted by Emily Blunt with musical guest Bruno Mars decline in the numbers. Overall, the show generated a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is the lowest rating of the season through three episodes. Yet, it’s the best measure for the show in the demo for a third episode since 2013, when Bruce Willis hosted with a musical performance from Katy Perry.

When you look at household ratings (which is not often something we really measure or care about), the news is even better. With a 5.0 rating, the show had its best number since a September 2008 show featuring host Anna Faris and musical guest Duffy. Look at this way: President Obama wasn’t even in office back when that episode aired.

“SNL” does tend to fare the best during election years, so that is a key component behind the high ratings so far — and while he may be rather upset about it, Donald Trump hating on the show and its Alec Baldwin impersonation of him is probably only going to boost its profile further.

The only thing we’re concerned about is that the ratings could decline on the show based on the quality of this weekend’s episode. That felt like somewhat of a disappointment given the strong start to date creatively. Hopefully with Tom Hanks coming up on the next show, that will help to turn matters around to a certain extent. (Photo: NBC.)