Chris Rock and Megan Thee Stallion Give 'SNL' Its Most-Watched Season Premiere in Four Years

'Saturday Night Live' finally returned to New York City's studio 8H this week, en route to its most-watched season premiere in four years.

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Image via Getty/ Michael Loccisano

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Saturday Night Live returned to New York City's studio 8H this week, en route to its most-watched season premiere in four years.

Deadline reports that the Season 46 premiere of SNL, which was hosted by Chris Rock and featured musical guest Megan Thee Stallion, drew in an impressive 7.765 million viewers on Saturday night. The episode also featured the return of Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, while Jim Carrey made his debut as Joe Biden. 

By comparison, last year's premiere brought in 6.107 million viewers, a difference of 27 percent. As Deadline notes, the show has historically brought in more viewers in the lead-up to elections, which would line-up with the 2016 numbers. The other high viewer mark for show was also during an election year in 2008, with Tina Fey's take on Sarah Palin becoming a big hit in particular.

The pick is in... 🏀 #SNLPremiere pic.twitter.com/mpEACjRYpi

— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) October 4, 2020

The high viewership figure also means the episode is the second most-watched episode of the show in over three years, trailing just behind the Eddie Murphy-hosted episode from last December. Rock notably made a cameo appearance in that same episode, which featured musical guest Lizzo.

If you happened to miss last night's episode, we've got you covered. Just click here, here, and here

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