“Saturday Night Live” drew 5.4 million viewers on Dec. 20, marking its most-watched episode in more than a year.
The episode was hosted by pop star and “Wicked” actress Ariana Grande, featured a musical guest appearance by Cher, and also marked Bowen Yang’s final appearance as a cast member. Yang joined SNL as a writer in 2018 and later became the first Asian cast member in the late night sketch show’s history for season 45 in 2019. News of his departure was reported the day before the final show.
This isn’t the first time Grande has brought high ratings to “SNL.” When he hosted with musical guest Stevie Nicks in October 2024, the resulting audience of 5.6 million was the show’s largest audience since Elon Musk hosted in May 2021. During Season 50, Grande’s episode, hosted by John Mulaney, reached 6.8 million viewers the following month, making Grande’s Season 51 episode the largest since then. Well then.
Before Grande hosted and Yang left, the most-watched episode of SNL Season 51 with 4.6 million viewers was the Oct. 4 season premiere, hosted by Bad Bunny with musical guest Doja Cat. On Peacock, the Bad Bunny episode remains the most-watched episode of the season, followed by the Grande episode.
Additionally, Saturday was the biggest Christmas episode since 2020, when Kristen Wiig co-hosted the show with musical guest Dua Lipa, reaching 6.6 million viewers.
Grande’s episode was also the biggest episode of Season 51 on social media, with 503 million views across YouTube, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok as of December 23, surpassing all episodes of Season 50.
“Saturday Night Live” is produced in association with Broadway Video, with Lorne Michaels serving as creator and executive producer. The series returns on January 17th with Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard as host and A$AP Rocky as musical guest.
