Justin Timberlake Boosts SNL Ratings to Best Numbers in Over a Year

Saturday Night Live is not the kind of show whose future depends on ratings, but this season’s average viewership was still troublesome. The palette of SNL hosts has been as varied as it was impressive, but nobody from Bruno Mars to Daniel Craig and from Seth MacFarlane to Jamie Foxx managed to break any records.

Quite on the contrary in fact, but fortunately (for NBC) Justin Timberlake came to the rescue. The actor/singer/all-around nice guy not only drove viewership up more than a point compared with Kevin Hart’s last week stint, but helped the show reach its best numbers in 14 months.

SNL’s average this week was 5.9/15 in metered-market households, while in the much coveted demo (adults 18-49) the show got a nice 3.7 rating and 18 share. That’s up 37 percent from last week on the whole and no less than 42% in the 18-49 niche, which is pretty darn impressive.

And it would have been even more impressive if the Jan. 7 show, with Charles Barkley as host and musical guest Kelly Clarkson, wouldn’t have followed on a primetime NFL playoff game. That remains the highest watched Saturday Night Live edition in the past year and a half.

In other news, Timberlake’s appearance on SNL this Saturday was his fifth ever, meaning he has now joined a pretty exclusive club, alongside Paul Simon, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Chevy Chase, Alec Baldwin and Candice Bergen.

Via [The Wrap]