Saturday Night Live UK lost nearly 10% of its audience with Jamie Dornan on hosting duties.
The Sky One show was watched by 205,000 viewers, which was 9% down on last week’s 226,000, but remains a respectable showing for the Comcast-owned network. It translated into a 3.2% share of available viewers.
SNL still beat other major networks at the time, including Channel 4, which aired film Moonfall to 136,000 viewers from 10.20PM, per BARB figures supplied by overnights.tv.
It was always likely that SNL would lose viewers for its second episode given the initial interest in the premiere, which was hosted by Tina Fey. Sky won’t be judging SNL on its overnight ratings. The company will take a broader view of the show’s performance, with the vitality of individual sketches likely to be important.
Episode two’s Prince Andrew cold open already has more than 800,000 viewers on SNL UK‘s official YouTube channel alone.
Sky has never put huge stock in overnight ratings. Even before the rise of streaming, the Comcast-owned broadcaster favored metrics that included repeat broadcasts and catch-up viewing. It means that the live audience for Saturday Night Live will just be one signal of the show’s success. Sky will also factor in viewing on Now, its streaming service, as well as virality.