SOMEONE thinks “Saturday Night Live” is funny after all.
A week after hosting the comedy show, NBC anchorman Brian Williams was catapulted back to the top of the news ratings.
In weekly ratings released yesterday, Williams beat rival Charles Gibson on ABC for the first time in weeks.
It was not a huge victory but it was enough – 9.22 million to ABC’s 9.17 million.
It was the NBC newscast’s best ratings since last February.
Williams was the first sitting network news anchor to host “SNL” and both fans and critics seemed to like his performance.
In fact, NBC said late yesterday that it was repeating the Williams “SNL” episode Saturday night.
The show has been shut down by a writers strike and will be in repeats until the walkout is ended, the network says.
Katie Couric’s “CBS Evening News,” meanwhile, trailed “Nightly” by nearly 2.5 million viewers last week. It was the biggest lead between NBC and CBS since last January.