Image: Saturday Night Live, NBC
Elon Musk’s unconventional appearance as the host of Saturday Night Live paid dividends for NBC, as he hosted one of the most in-demand episodes this season, and propelled global demand for the show to new heights. The announcement of Musk as host sparked controversy and built anticipation in the weeks leading up to this weekend's episode. This was the first time a non-entertainment personality hosted since Donald Trump in 2015.
US demand for SNL on the Saturday hosted by Musk and the following Sunday was the second highest for a host this season (69.7 times the average show in the US). This fell just short of Dave Chappelle whose episode registered 70.7 times the demand of the average series, which makes the comedian the most popular host of the show in the US so far this season.
Musk really differentiated himself by driving global demand for Saturday Night Live. SNL is generally most popular in the US due to the America-centric jokes and cultural references. However Musk's international profile brought global attention to the show this past weekend.
He was by far the most popular host globally this season pushing demand for the show up to 73.9 times that of the average series, well above the attention brought by other hosts. Chappelle was second at 39.9x.
Demand was notably high in Musk’s native South Africa, where the show reached 20 times the demand of the average series on Sunday. This is more than triple the average demand for Saturday Night Live in this market over the previous 30 days
