‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings: Zach Galifianakis down vs. Vince Vaughn show

While we thought Zach Galifianakis had his best edition of “Saturday Night Live” yet this weekend, apparently the viewers did not exactly seem that enthused to check it out.

Overall, this edition of the show drew just a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is a full three tenths lower than the last (and pretty awful) episode hosted by Vince Vaughn. Were viewers scared off by that episode? That could be one contributing factor to the decline, though we have to say that the primary reason for the down ratings was probably just the layoff of several weeks, coupled with the fact that we are now in May and it’s sunny out! More people are going to be partying with their friends than sitting at home watching TV, especially those in that aforementioned demographic.

So if you are still looking for the silver lining at the moment with all of this, remember that this rating was still easily enough to win the night across all four of the major TV networks, which is still pretty remarkable for something that airs at 11:30 p.m. at night. NBC has established an institution in this time-slot, and nothing else has really been able to compete with it. Also, it’s rather remarkable how “SNL” continues to stay pretty strong on NBC even when so many of their other shows are a mess. There is not a single comedy series on the network that averages a rating as good as the sketch show, which is pretty shocking. (It’s also shocking that the lowest-rated comedy on CBS still averages a better number than the highest-rated comedy on NBC.)

Are you surprised at all by these ratings, or did you see it coming? The show should bounce back next week with the return of Kristen Wiig, and for more on the Galifianakis episode, be sure to head over to the link here.

Photo: NBC