‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings: Louis C.K., fun. top Bruno Mars episode

Maybe it was seeing the first “Saturday Night Live” episode following Hurricane Sandy that had people intrigued, or maybe is was the presence of host Louis C.K. and musical guest fun. on the show. Regardless of the reason, NBC has to be feeling rather great about themselves at the moment courtesy of the show’s season-high numbers in the 18-49 demographic this weekend.

The show in total drew a 3.0 rating, which is up a tenth from the last show hosted by Bruno Mars two weeks ago. This is also the show’s strongest total rating overall since the show hosted by Will Ferrell back on May 12, which may be yet another sign that the new cast members are starting to gel well, and viewers are tuning in here more to see the comedy than one particular cast member like Andy Samberg or Kristen Wiig.

Some of C.K.’s highlights including a brilliant send-up of his own show “Louie” along with a spoof on famed interpreter for the deaf Lydia Callis. As we said in our full review, though, the most impressive aspect of the show may simply be that the producers pulled it off, especially considering the blackouts in Manhattan and the fact that many show staffers were having to stay with each other and even bring their children to work in order to pull off the show.

Next week, “SNL” will go for it again with their show hosted by Anne Hathaway, whose reputation in live TV has never fully recovered from hosting the 2011 Academy Awards with James Franco. The musical guest, meanwhile, is somehow in Rihanna who is a favorite of many on the show, even though we don’t know what sort of sketch she will appear in now without Samberg to work with.

Are you surprised at all by the high ratings for C.K.’s show?