There’s no black woman on the current Saturday Night Live sketch comedy show cast yet when they book their 9th African American woman in its 751- show history, this happens:
Her episode scores the second highest rating for the year, since Justin Timberlake hosted on March 9th.
According to Nielsen ratings, Washington’s SNL episode averaged a 2.6 adults 18-49 rating in the 25 markets with local people meters,
“’SNL’” was the #1 non-sports telecast of the night on the Big 4 networks in metered-market households and in the Local People Meters, topping all primetime entertainment programming on those networks last night,” an NBC press release noted.
Under the local people meters, a TV-tracking device that the industry uses to tabulate TV viewership in the top 25 markets, Washington’s episode was second, only slightly lower, since Miley Cyrus’s October 5 .
Certainly, all of the controversy related to the absence of black women cast members, played a factor in the numbers and perhaps enticed more people to tune in.
But most likely, it was also the power of the fans of Washington‘s super popular ABC TV show Scandal which is anchored by other black women but certainly includes many from other demos as well.
In any event, it should also show SNL what it is missing out by being so limited and tone-deaf on the value of showcasing more diverse talent!
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
