‘Saturday Night Live’ Scores Top Ratings With 40th Anniversary Special
NBC aired a three-hour live special on Sunday (Feb. 15) in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the iconic franchise Saturday Night Live, where quite a few celebrities came together to celebrate the series’ past, present and future.
The special edition scored some of the network’s best ratings with 23.1 million overall viewers for the night’s special occasion. The show is NBC’s most-watched prime time entertainment series since the Frasier finale, which earned 23.9 million viewers in May 2004.
The star-studded event brought back veterans Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, and Jerry Seinfeld alongside pop-culture stars Kerry Washington, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift.
Highlights of the night showcased Jimmy Fallon and Timberlake with the cold open, SNL audition tapes of cast members (and perhaps some that maybe should have been cast members), the classic Celebrity Jeopardy, a special edition of Wayne’s World and a soap opera spoof of The Californians Family Reunion.
Now, that’s a lot of comedy in one place!
See who else celebrated SNL‘s 40th Anniversary in the red carpet pictures below.
Dave Chappelle and wife, Elaine Chappelle
Eddie Murphy and girlfriend, Paige Butcher
J. B. Smoove and wife, Shahidah Omar
Kerry Washington
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Christopher Bridges, aka Ludacris
Gabourey Sidibe
Whoopi Goldberg
(Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
