RATINGS: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Premiere Grows Ten Percent

The 46th season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" has grown by +10% in adults 18-49 and +6% in total viewers in "live plus same day" "official national" ratings that include out-of-home viewing, increasing versus the preliminary "fast official" ratings released on Sunday by Nielsen Media Research.

The Oct. 3 edition, with host Chris Rock and musical guest Megan Thee Stallion, continues to report "SNL's" #1 most-watched season premiere in four years and second-most-watched in 12 years.

In these newly released official-national Nielsens, the "SNL" season premiere has averaged a 1.84 rating in adults 18-49 (up from a 1.68 in fast officials) and 8.235 million viewers overall (up from 7.765 million). That makes "SNL" the #1 most-watched entertainment telecast of the week on the Big 4 networks (excluding newsmagazines and live news and sports) and #2 in adults 18-49 behind only "The Masked Singer" (1.87).

It's "SNL's" #1 most-watched season premiere since 2016 (8.297 million with host Margot Robbie and musical guest The Weeknd, 8.297 million), and excluding that telecast, the most-watched season debut since 2008 (10.151 million with host Michael Phelps and musical guest Lil Wayne on Sept. 13, 2008).

Excluding last season's historic Dec. 21 telecast hosted by Eddie Murphy with musical guest Lizzo, it's "SNL's" #1 most-watched edition, premiere or otherwise, in more than three years, since the 2016-17 season finale (8.275 million with host Dwayne Johnson and musical guest Katy Perry on May 20, 2017), as well as the top-rated in 18-49, excluding the Eddie Murphy episode, in two years, since the Sept. 29, 2018 season premiere (1.86 with host Adam Driver and musical guest Kanye West on Sept. 29, 2018).

Versus the year-ago premiere, the Oct. 3 telecast is up +38% in 18-49 (1.84 vs. 1.33) and up +2.1 million persons or +35% in total viewers (8.235 million vs. 6.107 million). Note that the year-ago "official national" results did not include out-of-home viewing.

Social / Digital: "Saturday Night Live's" 46th season premiere drove 702,000 Total Social Interactions, jumping +159% over the year-ago season premiere (271,000) (Source: Nielsen Social Content Ratings; Late Fringe Daypart; Linear Window; 10/3/20).

The 702,000 Interactions make it the #2 most-social late-night broadcast program of the week, trailing only "The Tonight Show" (Source: Nielsen Social Content Ratings; Late Fringe Daypart; Linear Window; 9/28/20-10/4/20).

Among all comedy programs on Youtube over the weekend, "SNL" accounted for all five of the top five most-viewed Youtube videos, with the #1 most-viewed being the Presidential debate sketch (10 million views) (Source: ListenFirst Media Brand Rankings, LF // TV UNIVERSE // EPISODIC; Video Views; Comedy; Brand Type: TV Shows; 10/3/20-10/4/20).

Among all comedy programs across Facebook and Twitter over the weekend, "SNL" delivered the #1 most-shared post, the Presidential Debate sketch on Facebook (64,000 shares) (Source: ListenFirst Media Brand Rankings, LF // TV UNIVERSE // EPISODIC; Content Shares; Comedy ; Brand Type: TV Shows; 10/3/20-10/4/20).

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