āSaturday Night Liveā scored its biggest season premiere audience in four years and second best in 12 years, emphasizing the importance of presidential election time for the NBC comedy show.
During a busy week for news and sports, āSaturday Night Liveā was the most-watched entertainment show, despite starting at 11:35 p.m. on the East Coast, the Nielsen company said.
With 8.24 million viewers, it was the second most-watched āSNLā episode since May 2017, with the exception being last December's triumphant return of Eddie Murphy.
āWe needed āSaturday Night Liveā to rise to the occasion for this moment, and it didn't,ā agreed Eric Deggans, critic for National Public Radio.
āDebate Analysis,ā NBC, 6.94 million.