NBC's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has delivered its most-watched telecast in "live plus seven day" Nielsens in more than eight years. The Feb. 11 edition, hosted by Alec Baldwin and featuring musical guest Ed Sheeran, averaged a 4.88 rating in adults 18-49 and 16.030 million viewers in "live plus seven day" figures from Nielsen Media Research, giving it the show's biggest overall audience in L+7 since Oct. 19, 2008. That 2008 telecast featured host Josh Brolin and musical guest Adele, with cameo appearances by Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.
The 16.030 million in L+7 for the Feb. 11 edition is a gain of +5.2 million persons or +48% versus the show's 10.843 million in "live plus same day" Nielsens. In adults 18-49, the episode grew +57% to a 4.88 rating (from a 3.10 in L+SD), growing to "SNL's" highest L+7 rating since the first telecast after last November's election (5.11 with host Dave Chappelle and musical guest A Tribe Called Quest on Nov. 12, 2016) and second best since Dec. 21, 2013 (5.55 with host Jimmy Fallon and musical guest Justin Timberlake). The 4.88 beats every primetime L+7 result for a broadcast series over that Nielsen week of Feb. 6-12 except the Feb. 7 telecast of NBC's hit drama "This Is Us" (4.99 in L+7), finishing ahead of that week's #2 primetime broadcast series, the Feb. 9 episode of "The Big Bang Theory" (4.83). This past weekend, the Feb. 18 encore edition of "Saturday Night Live," with host Dave Chappelle and musical guest A Tribe Called Quest, averaged a 1.33 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 5.375 million viewers.Videos