If you’re wondering why President Donald Trump hasn’t tweeted about “Saturday Night Live’s” terrible ratings, here’s one likely theory: The NBC sketch-comedy series is having its most-viewed season in 22 years.
The most recent “SNL,” in which Melissa McCarthy lampooned White House press secretary Sean Spicer, nabbed a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49, according to TVLine’s sister site, Variety. As such, the late-night laugher ranked behind only CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” as the highest rated program in the demo.
These numbers are in line with “SNL’s” overall Season 42 viewership — its best since Season 20 — which is up 22 percent in total viewers over last year (10.6 million vs. 8.7 million).
Perhaps to capitalize on the ratings streak, NBC reportedly is thinking about spinning off “SNL’s” Weekend Update segment into its own 30-minute Thursday-night series to launch in the fall.
In a sense, the Not Ready for Primetime Players should probably give thanks to the ever-critical POTUS for the ratings boost: Though Trump has been very public with his disdain for frequent “SNL” guest star Alec Baldwin, Baldwin’s impression of the tycoon-turned-commander-in-chief is a likely audience draw. (Baldwin will host the show for the 17th time this weekend; Ed Sheeran will be the musical guest.)
SNL’s recent success is likely to irk the ratings-conscious Trump, who used part of his speaking time at February’s National Prayer Breakfast to malign Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stewardship off “Celebrity Apprentice,” which Trump used to host (and on which he is still credited as an executive producer). Earlier this year, Trump also tweeted that the number of Fox News Channel’s inauguration viewers was “many times higher than FAKE NEWS CNN,” an inaccurate statement to which CNN quickly responded.