Chris Rock and Megan Thee Stallion hosted the 46th SNL season premiere this past Saturday. The premiere became the most-watched SNL premiere in four seasons.
According to Deadline, the premiere brought in 7.765 million viewers. Last year’s premiere that brought in 6.107 million viewers. Alec Baldwin reprised his role as Donald Trump and Jim Carrey made his debut as Joe Biden.
The show tends to bring in more viewers during an election year. Back in 2008, SNL hit a high rating when Tina Fey debuted as Sarah Palin.
Chris Rock opened the episode poking fun at Donald Trump and his recent COVID-19 diagnosis. He also urged people to vote.
Megan’s performance of “Savage” was followed by a clip of Malcolm X’s 1962 speech “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” that played in the background with the message “Protect Black Women” projected behind her. She also slammed Kentucky Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, as an audio clip of activist Tamika Mallory saying, “Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout Negroes that sold our people into slavery,” played. The words “Daniel Cameron is no different” appeared behind Megan and her backup dancers.
In her second performance, Meg brought out Young Thug for her song “Don’t Stop.”
This means that Saturday’s premiere was the second most-watched SNL episode in the last 3 years, just behind Eddie Murphy’s episode that aired back in December.