Melissa McCarthy joining the Five-Timers Club was everything you could ask for and more. (Thanks motorized Spicy!) Lorne Michaels should have nice things to say about last night’s episode too. After all, McCarthy’s latest stint on the show has managed to lift SNL to heights not seen since Obama was still in his first term and Kristen Wiig was still on Saturday Night Live.
Variety reports that Saturday’s McCarthy/Haim edition of the program averaged a 2.7 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.3 million viewers. According to the Nielsen data, that’s the highest rating for a May SNL since Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga aligned forces for a May 2011 episode. To the likely chagrin of a certain president that declared the show to be “failing” and is reportedly “disturbed” by McCarthy’s Sean Spicer impression, last night’s Trump lampooning episode only follows Alec Baldwin’s hosting performance as in terms of total viewers this season.
It’s been a fascinating year at Saturday Night Live and considering the current political climate, it’s not all that nutty to understand why. The show’s been feted throughout 2016-17 for its political sketches, while also coming under fire for not being pointed enough in their goofs and spoofs. There’s definitely an appetite for late night network send-ups of the Trump White House. Stephen Colbert has witnessed his numbers get a major boost as he takes on Trump on a nightly Late Show basis.
SNL will close out the season (and potentially top Melissa and Alec) with human charm machine Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson once again serving as host and Katy Perry playing musical guest. If May continues to give NBC good Nielsen news, the current live from coast-to-coast experiment could likely become a more regular fixture.
(Via Variety)
