Saturday Night Live: Ryan Gosling’s Episode Ranked Most-Watched of Season 49

The 49th season of Saturday Night Live came to an end last week, and there were some exciting hosts along the way. Some of the season’s big guests included Timothée Chalamet, Jason Momoa, Emma Stone, Ayo Edebiri, Adam Driver, Jake Gyllenhaal, and more. However, there was one star who came out on top this year, and that’s Ryan Gosling. After coming off of awards season for Barbie, the actor was promoting his newest film, The Fall Guy. According to Nielsen, Gosling’s episode was the most-watched of the season. 

Gosling’s episode, which also featured musical guest, Chris Stapleton, saw saw in 8.9 million viewers tuning in on NBC. The episode also earned the season’s most social video views with 107.3 million views across platforms. It’s no surprise Gosling came out on top considering how many sketches were a hit. 

Gosling did many memorable sketches ranging from “Papyrus 2” to a reprisal of the infamous UFO sketch with Kate McKinnon. Gosling’s episode also featured a cameo from his The Fall Guy co-star, Emily Blunt. However, one of the biggest standouts of the episode was extremely unexpected. The episode kicked off what seemed to be a sketch focusing on the debate around artificial intelligence, but it ended up featuring Gosling in the crowd dressed as Beavis and Mikey Day as Butt-Head. The duo even reprised the roles on The Fall Guy red carpet. 

After the episode was released, cast member Heidi Gardner opened up about laughing during the Beavis and Butt-Head sketch. While breaking has always happened throughout SNL‘s history, Gardner admitted she was worried it would get her fired. 

“I just had it in my head [that] I couldn’t do it,” she explained on Today with Hoda and Jenna (via EW). “I think you get this big job on SNL and you want to do your job at the best of your ability – I think maybe I thought I’d get fired.” Gardner went on to reveal that she typically has ways to stop herself from breaking, including “biting her lip” or yawning. However, she just couldn’t keep it together around Gosling or Day. It didn’t help that Day was staring directly at her.

“A friend of mine [was] like – you know when you spike the camera? – it’s like, ‘Mikey spiked you, Heidi,’” she recalled. “He spiked me! It’s like his eyes just go… He didn’t look fully human to me. He looks like a kangaroo.” 

“I was trying to imagine seeing him in my head so I was prepared for it, but I just couldn’t prepare for what I saw. I really tried,” she added in an interview with Vulture. “I even saw Mikey out of the corner of my eye seconds before I went live. I saw the red shorts. I knew I couldn’t look over there again. Mikey even told me later that he was bending down and hiding himself so I wouldn’t see him.”

Congrats to Ryan Gosling on his successful SNL episode!