Despite severing ties with Donald Trump over the summer and the petitions, boycotts, and protests calling for the network to not endorse his—ahem—controversial views, NBC allowed the Trump-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live to go on last night, and as everyone probably predicted, it got dynamite ratings. That’s on you, America. Hopefully you’re proud.
That news comes from Variety, which breaks down the specific numbers from Nielsen, but the gist of it is that the ratings for last night’s SNL were 57% higher than the usual average in the fall, with an estimated 9 million people tuning in for what came out to be only 12 minutes of Trump. Those numbers were enough to give SNL its highest ratings since a Charles Barkley episode in January of 2012, which means the show could probably even top last night if Barkley started running for president. (Please do, Charles!) By comparison, Variety points out that last season’s highest ratings came in November when Chris Rock hosted with Prince as the musical guest. That episode got 7.44 million viewers.
So, in the end, it seems like NBC’s decision to ignore the controversy in the name of a desperate ratings grab really worked out. Also, in related news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic.