‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings: Melissa McCarthy’s pre-Super Bowl show delivers solid numbers

Melissa McCarthy was the host of this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live,” and obviously, the hope for her was that she was going to be able to draw some big numbers on the weekend of the Super Bowl. After all, this is a weekend of television-watching, and this show has routinely done pretty well for NBC.

Once again, that tradition has held firm for the network. While the “Mike & Molly” star did not break ratings records for her edition of the show Saturday, she did deliver the third-best numbers of the season with a 2.9 in the 18-49 demographic. Justin Timberlake is still at the top of the list, though the show hosted by Drake earlier this month was also a very lively contributor.

There is quite a bit for the folks over at the network to be very excited about, mainly that they know there is no requirement for them to have the Super Bowl in order for them to get big ratings from it. What may be a little more up for debate now is the status of McCarthy as a host. While we really enjoyed her exploits last night, there were many who were very critical of the show from start to finish, and felt like it really didn’t do enough to get people laughing beyond the return of Stefon and the exit of Seth Meyers. When the show does come back on March 1, it will be doing so with a new co-anchor on “Weekend Update” in Colin Jost … who definitely is going to have his work cut out for him. Cecily Strong at least has some experience, and she will be right at his side for the thing.

If you do want to read some more news related to “Saturday Night Live,” just be sure to click here if you want to read our full review of this episode. Also be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter to get some great TV updates.

Photo: NBC