Saturday Night Live ratings for Larry David show impress in early estimates

While the Saturday Night Live ratings this season are not necessarily living up to the standard set by last season, nobody really expected them to. Last season had the benefit of the Presidential Election and with that, many more people were interested in checking the show out. We’d also say that last season the country wasn’t as divided as it is at the moment. Now, we are at a point where unless you are liberal, there’s a good chance that you are not watching SNL.

Last night’s new episode of SNL featured Larry David as the host, and there were many blistering attacks on Donald Trump and the administration. It was a funny iteration of the show, though there was some controversy that came out of it overnight. Some felt that he went too far with some of his runs on concentration camps in his opening monologue; basically, it’s similar to the sort of backlash that many other comedians have endured following their own monologues as of late. Comedy often is meant to make us all uncomfortable as viewers — pushing the envelope, (for better or for worse) makes you memorable.

In terms of the pure numbers alone, SNL delivered this week. With a 4.7 household rating and an 11% share, this is the top-rated episode of the season so far in these measurements. That’s a sign that the show is still very much relevant with its core audience and there was a ton of enthusiasm around seeing David’s return to the show for the first time in over a year.

Meanwhile, in the 18-49 demographic the show generated a 1.8 rating — that is very good and just as strong and most other scripted comedies out there not related to The Big Bang Theory. It’s not a season high in this measurement, though — the David episode skewed slightly old, not that this is a shock given that Larry is an older guy known for a show in Curb Your Enthusiasm that  skews older. Also, his best work before that was Seinfeld, which has been off the air for a considerable amount of time at this point.

Even with the show skewing slightly older than usual last night, we certainly think SNL will invite him back at some point in the future. For now, though Lorne Michaels and the staff are getting ready for the show hosted by Tiffany Haddish next week. She has her own solid fanbase, but we actually think that musical guest Taylor Swift is going to be the bigger draw given that she’s one of the biggest names in all of music.

Did you see our review of this last episode of Saturday Night Live? If not, head over here to read it right now.

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