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‘Saturday Night Live’ scores its highest premiere rating since 2008

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The presidential election campaign and Alex Baldwin’s impersonation of Donald Trump gave the season premiere of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” a big ratings lift.

Saturday’s 42nd season kickoff averaged a 5.8 rating in the overnight markets measured by Nielsen. The figure is 29% higher than the season premiere on Oct. 3, 2015.

It was the highest overnight rating for an “SNL” season opener since Sept. 13, 2008, when Tina Fey brought her spot-on impersonation of then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to the show.

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“SNL” pulled out the campaign stops this year with Baldwin as Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton in a parody of the first presidential debate last Monday (which averaged a record 84 million TV viewers). The sketch became a topic for the political roundtable discussions on Sunday public affairs programs.

Larry David showed up later on “SNL” as Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

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The show was hosted by Margot Robbie. The Weeknd was featured as musical guest.

In Los Angeles, “SNL” scored a 5.6 rating and a 19% share of the homes using TV in the market. In New York, the show had an 8.0 rating and a 20% share. In Chicago, it delivered an 8.5 rating and an 18% share.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio

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