Eddie Murphy’s return to host Saturday Night Live after a 35-year absence gave the NBC show its highest ratings in over two years. This is according to “fast official” Nielsen numbers ordered by the broadcaster, which showed that episode delivered a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 9.921 million viewers overall in Live+Same Day.
The episode featured a performance by Lizzo and appearances by Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Larry David, Maya Rudolph, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, and Rachel Dratch. It was the highest-rated and most-watched episode of Saturday Night Live since May 13, 2017, when Melissa McCarthy hosted and HAIM appeared as a musical guest.
Along with the customary monologue (which you can check a snippet of out below), Murphy also brought back a host of his old SNL characters, such as Buckwheat, Mister Robinson and Gumby.
Known as one of SNL‘s biggest breakout stars, Murphy first appeared on the sketch comedy show back in 1980 when he was just 19 years old.
