The 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” is off to a strong ratings start and is a record-breaker for the streaming service Peacock.
NBC said Monday that 5.3 million people watched the premiere live, the best opening for the show since 2020, when Alec Baldwin reprised his role as then-President Donald Trump and Chris Rock hosted with musical guest Megan Thee Stallion.
The sketch comedy show welcomed back several alums this weekend for its opening skit about this year’s U.S. presidential race, with Maya Rudolph playing Kamala Harris and Dana Carvey playing President Joe Biden.
The episode is the most-watched “SNL” ever on Peacock in its first weekend, NBC said.
Jean Smart hosted the 50th season premiere and country sensation Jelly Roll was the musical guest.
The opening sketch could be a preview of the season ahead, with alum Andy Samberg returning to play Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan playing Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Only Rudolph as Harris was expected, although “SNL” hadn’t confirmed she would reprise the role.
The first “SNL” episode aired Oct. 11, 1975, with Lorne Michaels at the helm, just as he is now.
George Carlin hosted then and the show introduced its first cast of the so-called Not Ready for Prime Time Players: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris.
Comedian Nate Bargatze is hosting this weekend’s “SNL,” with Coldplay appearing as the musical guest. NBC will air a three-hour live “SNL” celebration on Feb. 16 to mark the anniversary.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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