• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 10, 2011

Buoyed by a huge football lead-in, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" posted its highest ratings in quite some time over the weekend in multiple metrics. Final ratings are due later this week.

"SNL," with Jim Carrey as host, averaged a 5.4 rating in the 18-to-49 demo in the 25 large markets with Nielsen's local people meters -- the highest since Nov. 1, 2008. The latter show, just before Election Day, had presidential candidate John McCain in a memorable cameo.

Using another measure at the household level, "SNL" ratings were the strongest since Betty White hosted the show last spring.

"SNL" followed local news and the hugely rated New York Jets-Indianapolis NFL playoff game in prime time. The game had the highest overnight rating for any NFL game, on what's known as "Wild Card Saturday," in 11 years. (Prime-time games have been on since 2002 there.)

The Jets-Colts game had a 20.8 overnight household rating, which was 6% above the Philadelphia-Dallas game in the same slot in 2010. In local markets, the game had a household 48 rating in Indianapolis, the highest in the country, and a 29.9 in Baltimore. New York was 20th with a 21.9.