Ryan Gosling Lifts SNL Audience to a 28-Month High, Sets Peacock Record

That Ryan Gosling is a pretty popular guy, it turns out: The April 13 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Gosling was the most-watched SNL in more than two years, NBC announced on Wednesday.

The Gosling-hosted episode piled up 8.9 million total viewers in Live+7 viewing across all platforms, the most since the Dec. 11, 2021 episode hosted by Billie Eilish. It also hit a 2.0 in the key 18-49 ratings demo, which marks the best showing for SNL since the Dave Chappelle-hosted episode on Nov. 11, 2022. Gosling’s episode — his third time hosting SNL — is also the most-watched SNL episode ever on Peacock.

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The episode has piled up 46 million views on YouTube as well, along with 170 million social video views, per the network. In case you missed it, Gosling’s hosting stint included a reprise of his “Close Encounter” alien abduction sketch with guest star Kate McKinnon, a musical monologue paying tribute to his Barbie character Ken where he was joined by Emily Blunt and a memorably giggly sketch where he and Mikey Day played guys who have no idea they look just like Beavis and Butt-Head.

SNL will try to chase that ratings high when it returns on May 4 with first-time host Dua Lipa, who will also serve as musical guest.

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