The April 13 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Ryan Gosling and featuring musical guest Chris Stapleton, had several talked-about moments, from a sketch involving Gosling and his co-star Emily Blunt to a wardrobe malfunction that caused cast member Heidi Gardner to break down laughing. Taylor Swift also performed a special rendition of “All Too Well” with Gosling and Blunt. The water-cooler nature of the episode paid off in the ratings, as the show hit some of its best numbers of recent years. After a week of cross-platform viewing, the episode drew 8.9 million viewers and a 2.0 rating (equivalent to about 2.64 million people) in the adults 18-49 demographic, both of which are season highs. More than season highs, in fact: Saturday Night Live had its best showing in total viewers since Dec. 11, 2021, when Billie Eilish was both the host and musical guest. The show also hit its best 18-49 rating since Nov. 12, 2022, with host Dave Chappelle and musical guest Black Star.
NBC also says the episode was the most watched ever on Peacock (though per usual with streaming platforms, there’s no hard data to go with the claim). The episode also has had a robust afterlife on social platforms, gathering 170 million video views (which can be as little as a second or two or up to 30 seconds, depending on the platform) over seven days. On YouTube, a dozen excerpts from the episode have passed the million-view mark, with the Beavis and Butt-head sketch leading the way with 12 million as of publication time.
