This past season of Saturday Night Live was one of its most watched in a long time, with the sketch show earning solid weekly numbers. A lot of this can be traced back to the election and these politically-charged times, as SNL's humorous impressions of politicians became must-see (See: Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer). So, it completely logical for Weekend Update to be brought back for standalone primetime episodes to skewer all the political news that people clearly want to watch. This strategy worked out well last night as Weekend Update Summer Edition was the second-highest rated show of the evening.
A lot has happened since SNL wrapped Season 42 back in May, and people were curious to see what Colin Jost, Michael Che, and the writers of Weekend Update had to say about the biggest headlines of the summer According to TV by the Numbers, Weekend Update Summer Edition boasted a 1.7 rating in the key adult 18-49 demographic, which is extremely solid for a premiere of any kind. In fact, it was only second to Big Brother's impressive 2.2 rating. The next-highest rating was a 1.3 shared by repeats of both Big Bang Theory and Kevin Can Wait.
What's more, Weekend Update Summer Edition locked down a total of 6.53 million viewers, which isn't too far behind Big Brother's 7.30 million total viewers. That said, it was actually in third place for viewers, as that Big Bang Theory managed to draw in 7.06 million pairs of eyes. As evidenced by two repeats and two unscripted shows being the top dogs, the August section of TV season is hardly ever the most crowded (or particularly exciting), which no doubt helped the Summer Edition score up some extra numbers. All in all, it's a solid debut that should be a good sign for the remaining three episodes to come.
It also helps that the writing and the jokes were solid too. Colin Jost and Michael Che had a lot of ground to cover, hitting upon North Korea, President Trump, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. (with Alex Moffat and Mikey Day ending vacation early to reprise their impressions), and outspoken Laker dad LaVar Ball for some reason. It was a fun -- if maybe predictable -- night, but the highlight was no doubt Bill Hader's surprise debut as Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci. Hader was pitch-perfect with his Moochsims, lamenting to Che his short time at the White House. I've taken the liberty of providing that clip for you down below.
Weekend Update Summer Edition has three more weekly episodes left to go, and fingers crossed these impressive numbers inspires more primetime SNL in the future. Catch it on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST on NBC. To learn more about what shows to add to your watchlist, check out our summer TV schedule. Don't forget that a new TV season is just over the horizon, so take a peek at our fall release schedule while you're at it.
