Miley Cyrus Equals Tina Fey on 'SNL'
by EG
Miley Cyrus's ubiquitous presence in the entertainment news may have helped "Saturday Night Live" to retain the ratings it got for last week's season-premiere episode, but if the show was hoping for a boost from Cyrus's current notoriety, those hopes weren't realized. The ratings for Cyrus's "SNL" episode were strong compared to last year's same-week episode but only equal to those of recent episodes.
The Cyrus-hosted episode of "SNL" was delayed almost a half hour by a football game that ran long, but that didn't deter many viewers, according to early results from markets in which Nielsen employs Local People Meter devices. In those markets, the episode earned a 2.7 rating among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, which tied the ratings performance of last week's episode, as well as that of last season's finale in May. Last week's episode was hosted by Tina Fey, and last season's closer was hosted by Ben Affleck.
Cyrus has enjoyed a high profile lately because of controversial performances at the VMA awards, at the iHeart Radio Music Festival, and in her "Wrecking Ball" music video. The Miley hype ramped up last week as the pop singer entered into a public feud with singer Sinead O'Connor after O'Conner publically delivered an open letter to Cyrus criticizing the younger singer's recent outrageous behavior.