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Eddie Murphy Brought Killer Ratings to ‘SNL’ While ‘Cats’ was Killed at Box Office

eddie murphy - snl-velvet-jones-returns-2019

*Eddie Murphy‘s vaunted return to “Saturday Night Live” after 35 years was a ratings smash for the long-running NBC sketch comedy series

Murphy’s appearance as host on “SNL” helped the show achieve its highest ratings in over two years.

Here’s more via Urban Hollywood 411:

The Dec. 21 episode, with Lizzo as musical guest, averaged a 2.5 rating in the key adults 18-49 demo and 9.9 million overall viewers, according to Deadline.

Those are the best numbers SNL has posted since May 2017, when Melissa McCarthy hosted and HAIM served as musical guest. That episode averaged a 2.7 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.3 million viewers.

This weekend’s installment of SNL tied the September season premiere of Fox’s The Masked Singer as the highest-rated entertainment series broadcast this season in the 18-49 demo.

Murphy’s hosting gig burned up social media, making him and SNL top trending topics Saturday night.

YouTube video

EDDIE MURPHY WAS GUMBY, DAMMIT! AND MR. ROBINSON & BILL COSBY ON HIS ICONIC ‘SNL’ RETURN – WATCH

Cats - Jennifer Hudson

In other entertainment news, Urban Hollywood 411 is also reporting that “‘Cats’ Gets Mauled And Is Dead On Arrival At Box Office!”

Ouch!

Furthermore, the site says the movie musical — which cost a reported $100 million to make — bombed spectacularly, taking in an estimated $6.5 million, according to Comscore. That was well below the $10 million to $15 million analysts had expected.

The Universal and Working Title film played in 3,380 theaters in North America, for a per location average of $1,923.

The film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” was unable to overcome a series of troubles, including negative headlines that began as soon as the first trailer dropped in July.

Fans flooded the comments section on YouTube saying they were freaked out by the bizarre appearance of the film’s cast that includes Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Francesca Hayward, Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, and Jason Derulo.

There’s a lot MORE to the story. Get it at Anita Bennett’s Urban Hollywood 411.

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