SNL Sustains Reach On Social Well Past Election Season

Saturday Night Live typically finds its biggest audience during election years, but the long-running comedy show has managed to keep its reach higher long after the polls closed during its 50th season – as data from Tubular Labs spotlights.

According to Tubular’s Audience Ratings data: 

• SNL increased its unique reach month-over-month every month since January this year, hitting a peak of 28.9 million U.S. viewers across YouTube and Facebook in March. That was a 13-month high for the show, topping even the usual October pre-election surge.
• Political-related sketches like cold opens around Elon Musk and Marco Rubio, plus Weekend Update, were some of the most-watched SNL videos of the month, though one of the other major boosts came from comedian Shane Gillis’s turn as host. 
• Sketches featuring Gillis were four of the eight most-watched SNL uploads in March – led by hit Couplabeers (7.0 million views), and the success of those videos highlight how the show may have reached beyond its typical audience with Gillis as host.
• Tubular data shows that across all social platforms, overlap for Shane Gillis-related videos and SNL is just 30%, leaving a lot of opportunity for the show to connect with that other 70% via uploads after it aired.