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Last night’s season finale of Saturday Night Live hosted by Justin Timberlake with musical guest Lady Gaga scored a 7.0 household rating/21 share in the metered markets. That was up 21% from last season’s finale and the highest overnight rating for an SNL season closer since May 15, 2004, when a telecast hosted by the Olsen Twins with musical guest J-Kwon also averaged a 7.0 rating. The last time a season finale of SNL scored a higher rating was more than a decade ago, on May 20, 2000, when the show hosted by Jackie Chan with musical guest Kid Rock posted a 7.3 rating. Last night we posted 3-Way, Timberlake and Andy Samberg’s followup to their now-classic videos Dick In a Box and Motherlover. Here is another highlight from Timberlake’s enjoyable turn as SNL host.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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JT is hilarious, but Lady Gaga was incredibly annoying. Plus her silly get-ups looked like a 3rd grade costume my Mom may have made for me. It’s really getting old.
Maybe it’s just you that’s getting old.
Ha. Perhaps. But, if preferring Dylan to Gaga is a sign of getting old, I’m cool with it.
Every cast always seems to complain that they’re told the cast BEFORE them was “the great cast” and they’re the dregs. May well be true with the next one as, even in the poor skits, the current Hader-Wiig-Sudeikis-Samberg-Thompson-Meyers group is pretty consistently funny.
Kristin Wiig is one of the least funny people currently getting work in America. I do not understand why she keeps getting hired. She seems like a nice person, but it baffles me the amount of attention she has gotten over the last several years. And dont talk to me about Gilly, Keenan has always been the funniest part of that sketch.
Justin Timberlake is the ideal host for SNL. He just does an incredible job each and every time. And in my opinion, improves each time. He’s such a talent. My only complaint is there wasn’t a Target Lady skit.
Justin Timberlake is one of the freshest hosts of a show that is usually quite stale.
He embraces the silliness in an earnest way.
My favorite part: He doesn’t stare off into oblivion to read the dialog from the cue cards.
Which begs the question of why the actual cast has yet to master the skill of learning a handful of lines after years on the show and even longer as a performer.
I don’t listen to Justin Timberake’s music… Not my cup of tea, but I enjoy what he brings to the show.
My understanding is that the cast is instructed to look at the cue cards, rather than try to memorize them. This doesn’t make it any better or less distracting, though.
It’s a live, weekly show. Do you know how often there are last minute changes to the script in each sketch? It’s impossible to memorize every line on that timetable, so they sometimes have to rely on cue cards. Lots of pressure in that gig.
Last night’s SNL was a surprise. There’s no doubt that the show’s comedy quotient seems to rise when Justin Timberlake is the host. That guy is incredibly multi-talented. Maybe NBC should be talking to him about hosting the Tonight Show. He can do monologues sketch comedy and sing…. the show would be terrific even when the guests suck. As for the musical guest Lady Ga Ga… I still don’t get it. She is a pale clone of Madonna—without the savvy. Ridiculous.
Pale clone of Madonna? Unlike Madonna, Gaga can actually sing.
I don’t think J.T. is quite ready to host the friggin Tonight Show…He’s awesome….
Movies, music, SNL host much more, get older and then host it.
Maybe you should take a friend to Amsterdam and tell him to bring some weed with him….
Last night’s SNL was a surprise. There’s no doubt that the show’s comedy quotient seems to rise when Justin Timberlake is the host. That guy is incredibly multi-talented. Maybe NBC should be talking to him about hosting the Tonight Show. He can do monologues sketch comedy and sing…. the show would be terrific even when the guests suck. As for the musical guest Lady Ga Ga… I still don’t get it. She is a pale clone of Madonna—without the savvy. Ridiculous.
Mike L., in many cases the SNL writers change the writing at the last minute, so the SNL host and SNL cast do not memorize the dialogue- they rely heavily on the cue cards. Yes, you are right , it is very distracting to see many of the SNL hosts and SNL cast read cue cards , because they are horrible with balancing reading cue cards with acting- and making it seem natural and real.
My favorite SNL hosts this year are : Jon Hamm, Justin Timberlake, and Anne Hathaway. And, they repeatedly been great on their previous shows they hosted.
P.S. Bill Hader is the most consistently brilliant SNL cast member , that SNL has had in years.
They add too much canned laughter to the sound track. Rings false.
They don’t, actually. It’s just funnier when you’re actually there, and the excitement of Justin Timberlake and the season finale would add to the studio audience’s reactions.
We’ve all seen SNL sketches that are dead in the water and have a near-silent audience. Madtv, on the other hand, used to use canned laughter like crazy, with the “audience” going absolutely nuts over every single sketch.
There is NO canned laughter at all.
None.
Ever.
Trust me on this one…
This show was the best yet. I love Justin Timberlake .. He rocks… I wasn’t that impressed by Lady Gaga she was sorta annoying … i dont know it migh be her HUGE teeth lol .. lovely voice though ..
Auto-Tuned to perfection.
The great SNL casts of yesteryear didn’t have to resort to vulgarity for laughs. That’s because they had talent.
I think the opening with Thompson and Pharoh was the best all season. I have been skipping over the opening everytime I see Armisen as Obama (booooooring). Timberlake has consistently been a great host, better than Baldwin.
agreed. that opener was brilliant. and it’s time to find someone else to play Obama.
LADY GAGA actually showed some great comedy chops/ She and Timberlake were hilarious together.
JT destroyedddddd that skit… Came hm at 3am and fired up the DVR and bong — and preceded to die laughing at this skit.
dude, have no idea who you are but cracked up on post bout SNL…
I laughed for fukin hours when I watched that episode.So high and happy…
I THOUGHT GAGA WAS GREAT, JUSTIN DID A GOOD JOB,HOWEVER,I THOUGHT MOST OF THE SKITS WHERE NOT FUNNY.THE NEWS SEGMENT IS ALWAYS GOOD.THE OPENING SKIT WAS AWFUL….
Timberlake is a triple threat, people do not give him enough credit.
What sheer talent that young man has. A true gift, best part? How he ‘forgot’ his fellow Nysnc band member’s name! COMEDY!
Well done SNL and crew
It was a funny and polished episode, like all of JT’s. I just wish they had done one or two originals. Every single sketch Justin was in was recurring.
If you think every JT sketch was in was recurring, thats because HE made them that way! THATS the sign of a great host-when skits are created for him, and they kill, and every time he comes back, hes got a built-in audience of funny characters he can do! And even when hes not the focus, like in the Barry Gibb Show, hes awesome in it. I wish they could clone him 7 more times and get rid of most of this god-awful cast! Youd think a cold opening w/o Armisens dreadful Obozo “impression” could have been good, but all it was were the two black guys acting all black-wow, so original!
JT is rather amazing; he seems to be able to do it all with some grace and dignity. Gaga is so freaking annoying. She’s got so much shit going on onstage, that it takes away from the wodnerful music. And, enough with “Born This Way” already; I’ll my Madonna anyday. Hope Ebersol watched this show… it was for him!
Yep, Ebersol, Chase, Belushi, Michaels … I am old!!!
It was not SNL last night – it was the JT Variety Show with Hader,Wiig, Sandbergh and Gaga… They barely had to use the entire cast … Especially bringing in Bradley Cooper and Gaga into the mix… Slash the cast size and have the writing staff pretend every show is with JT or Betty White …. Cause it’s been so hit or miss lately but last night was solid…
I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s SNL. Sorry folks but Gaga is funny as all hell. And a terrific performer. And Justin is a natural born comedian. He gets better everytime he hosts.
Justin Timberlake – Future Oscar Host?
Yes…great idea!!
Timberlake is an f ing GENIUS !!!!!!!!!!!
1) Timberlake is really entertaining and can kind of do it all. Pretty amazing.
2) There is no canned laughter on SNL. That’s the studio audience. Maybe when they package the show for a repeat air they might remix the laughs a little hot, or put in a laugh to cover an edit, but the laughs are not canned.
I don’t like his music at all, but it does seem that JT is very talented, and in a multitude of arenas. Good for him!
That was funny! Can’t wait for Bad Teacher!
Justin Timberlake is good because he’s an occasional host and can pick and choose from fresher material. The biq question for this season is why so many shows were pre-empted or simply repeats? Are the stars asking for too much money per show?
Bill Hader as “Stefan” is hilarious and the more he appears as that character, the more he seems to break up Seth Meyers. They look like they genuinely love doing that bit. It would have been awesome to have JT appear alongside Stefan with his own take on hot/gay clubs.
For next season, the writers need to take a good, long look at the recurring sketches and cut them by half. Most are not remotely funny. But book Timberlake as often as possible.
It’s amazing after 36 years how people still don’t get that the cast never learned lines and always had to rely on cue cards because things change so much.
But “canned laughter”? It’s a live show. Do they think there is a post audio guy there every Saturday night?