The campaign to get Betty White on as host of Saturday Night Live came out of nowhere, and no one was more surprised by it than Betty White herself. However, SNL‘s initial reticence to the idea seems to have been for nothing as not only did Ms. White perform admirably given the material she was given and perform well on live television, she also managed to score the best ratings for Saturday Night Live in 18 months and perhaps guide the show to the biggest ratings on Saturday of any show broadcast!
The show grabbed an 8.8 rating for the night, good for a 21 share. In layman’s terms, that means 21 percent of the viewing audience of television at that time was watching Betty White on Saturday Night Live. It’s the show’s best ratings in at least 18 months, possibly longer given the imprecise nature of TV ratings!
I watched the show, and I thought it was surprisingly wonderful. It’s some of the show’s funniest material in a long time, and the Golden Girls tribute digital short was wonderful, and hilarious after it turned into Betty White’s death metal debut. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Betty did given how tough the show can be on young people, much less someone pushing 90. Kudos, Betty! You’re still the best!
Tags: Betty White, Saturday Night Live, mother’s day edition of Saturday Night Live, Hollywood, ratings, Betty White SNL ratings, SNL scores best ratings in 18 months, television, TV ratings, viewers