Saturday Night time Stay started its milestone fiftieth season with a large rankings bump.

The season premiere, hosted by Hacks Emmy winner Jean Good, delivered 5.3 million viewers, in accordance with same-day rankings from Nielsen (which don’t embody streaming). That’s one of the best begin for an SNL season since 2020 and a 15 % enchancment over the 4.6 million viewers who tuned in for final 12 months’s premiere.

The premiere featured a number of visitor appearances, together with three by former castmembers: Maya Rudolph returned as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg performed Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and Dana Carvey portrayed President Joe Biden. Comic Jim Gaffigan additionally confirmed as much as play Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ VP nominee, whereas present common James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang performed the Republican nominees for president and vice chairman, Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance.

The 5.3 million viewers additionally makes SNL probably the most watched leisure applications of the 2024-25 season’s first week, primarily based on same-day figures. Pending outcomes for Sunday’s primetime, it trails solely three different exhibits, all on NBC: The Voice (5.96 million viewers), Chicago Fireplace (5.6 million) and Chicago Med (5.46 million).

SNL usually will get a rankings enhance in election years — the season 46 premiere in 2020 introduced in additional than 8 million viewers, which was additionally a four-year excessive on the time.