SNL50 Anniversary Special Draws Nearly 15 Million Viewers, Gives NBC A 5-Year High

At the SNL50 concert on Friday night, a high-ranking NBC exec asked me what I thought the viewership would be for the actual three-hour anniversary special airing/streaming on Sunday night.

I said 15 million.

Missed it by thatmuch.

The star-studded SNL50: The Anniversary Special, which aired live from Studio 8H on Sunday night, drew 14.8 million total viewers across both NBC and Peacock, making it NBC's most-watched primetime entertainment telecast in five years (since the 2020 Golden Globes).

In the demo, the special scored a 2.53 rating, also marking a five-year high.

TVLine readers gave the sketch comedy series' milestone outing an average grade of "B+"; revisit all of the sketches and musical performances here.

Zeroing in on just the early streaming numbers (though no actual numbers were furnished by NBC), SNL50: The Anniversary Special stands as the fourth-most watched entertainment simulcast on Peacock, trailing only three telecasts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The hour-long red carpet special that preceded the event drew 6.5 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and E!

Meanwhile, Friday night's aforementioned SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Peacock delivered nearly twice the average reach of a Season 50 SNL episode over a three-day period, though again, no specific data points were furnished.

The Live+Same Day numbers reported in TVLine's daily-ish ratings column do NOT reflect a television program's overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution