When Saturday Night Live UK was first announced, the news was met with scepticism, but the sketch show has proved the naysayers wrong and will return for an extended second season.
Sky has confirmed the UK version of the long-running US sketch show, SNL, will return for 12 more episodes mere months after series one concludes later this month. Lorne Michaels, the creator and producer behind the SNL franchise, celebrated the news, saying that the UK version “keeps getting better every week”.
SNL UK season two will screen in the autumn and will run into early 2027.
SNL stalwart Tina Fey kicked off as the first guest host, followed by Jamie Dornan, Riz Ahmed, Jack Whitehall, Nichola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood.
Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham and former Doctor Who lead Ncuti Gatwa will be the final two celebrity presenters for the first season, an eight-episode run.
The show has made stars of its cast of actors and comedians, who include George Fouracres, Jack Shep, Annabel Marlow, Hammed Animashaun, as well as Ania Magliano and Paddy Young hosting the Weekend Update segment. Emma Sidi, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring and Al Nash complete the line-up.
The show suffered a dip in ratings after a solid start, which attracted 226,000 viewers for its first episode with Fey. The second episode, with actor Dornan, pulled in 205,000 viewers, with 130,100 tuning in for Ahmed’s episode the week after.
The show has been a huge success on social media, however, creating viral moments thanks to the cast’s impersonations of Princess Diana, Keir Starmer, Melania Trump and Prince Charles. As of late April, the series’ Instagram and TikTok clips had exceeded 86 million views, making it a certified hit in the current world of television.
Last month, comedian and actor Nick Mohammed said the show was “the best thing that’s happened to British comedy since” Ricky Gervais’s sitcom The Office premiered in 2001.
He told The Independent: “I honestly believe that. To be cynical about it, it’s a shame that it’s taken Americans to come in with a format and say, ‘Just do it like that’. When I was starting out, there were so many production companies and channels wanting to emulate Saturday Night Live, and not having the guts to do it. But I think they’ve nailed it.
“I watched the first episode, and was literally emotional at the end when they all came out. If it was maybe 10 years ago, I would have killed for it.”
