A decision by Sinclair, Inc. to program its comedy multicast network TBD with re-runs of Saturday Night Live on Super Bowl Sunday resulted in a sharp increase in viewership to the channel, according to Nielsen ratings data reviewed by The Desk.
The network aired episodes of the iconic NBC late night sketch comedy program that touched upon football or had some nexus to the Super Bowl, including an episode hosted by Woody Harrelson that featured Kendrick Lamar as the musical guest and a subsequent episode hosted by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Lamar was the halftime performer at Super Bowl LIX, which Kelce and the Chiefs lost.
Episodes aired during pre-game coverage of Super Bowl LIX resulted in a 96 percent lift in viewership to TBD in markets where Fox-owned stations carries the channel. In New York, where TBD is offered on a digital sub-channel of Fox-owned WNYW (Channel 5), TBD’s viewership was 168 percent higher than its January average for Saturday Night Live repeats, Nielsen data showed.
The viewership data confirms a theory by Sinclair executives that positioning TBD and its three other multicast networks adjacent to major networks on the over-the-air dial results in higher viewership from TV and sports fans who sample across different channels before, during and after major events. Similar viewership increases were measured on TBD and its sister network Comet during the NFC Championship and AFC Championship football games in January, The Desk reported earlier this month. The AFC Championship game aired on CBS, whose owned-and-operated stations in major markets offer Comet on a digital sub-channel.
During both games, Sinclair made a deliberate programming decision, offering re-runs of Saturday Night Live on TBD with the hopes that viewers would find the program after watching the NFC Championship game on Fox, and scheduling repeats of the hit Fox series “The X-Files” to air on Comet during and after the AFC Championship game on CBS.
TBD has leaned heavily on Saturday Night Live’s archive to draw viewers to the channel. The network began airing reruns last September, with episodes edited to fill a conventional one-hour block with commercials. Some Saturday Night Live-themed programs offered in the past by NBC, including “The Best of Commercial Parodies” and “The Women of SNL,” also air in regular rotation on TBD.
Earlier this month, TBD ran a 50-hour marathon block of Saturday Night Live, timed to coincide with the airing of the show’s 50th anniversary special on NBC. (The marathon on TBD ended at the precise minute that the special started on East Coast NBC stations and affiliates.)
The 50-hour marathon block resulted in a 166 percent lift in TBD’s overall viewership compared to its average audience in 2025, Nielsen data showed, including a 62 percent increase in viewership among adults between the ages of 25 and 54 years old — the demographic most-attractive to broadcast and cable TV advertisers.
