SNL is known for its all-night writing marathons, with the show\u2019s scribes penning sketches late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning ahead of a table read with the cast and guest host.<\/p>\n
But Fey<\/a>, who joined the late-night sketch comedy show in 1997 as a writer before becoming a cast member in 2000, says those late nights are not necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s a dirty secret: you don\u2019t have to do it that way,\u201d Fey told the Edinburgh TV Festival, per Deadline<\/a>. \u201cYou could start in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Fey\u2019s comments come months after Sky announced in April<\/a> that it would bring a British version of the show to audiences in the U.K. and Ireland in 2026, marking the first time the program will be produced outside the United States.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Tina Fey has offered advice to those working on the British version of \u2018Saturday Night Live\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n The British version will retain the original\u2019s signature style \u2014 it will be aired live late at night and feature a rotating roster of celebrity hosts, musical guests, and a regular cast of British comedic talent.<\/p>\n Several celebrities and late night hosts have weighed in on the British version, including Seth Meyers and John Oliver.<\/a><\/p>\n Meyers, 51, was an SNL cast member from 2001 to 2014 and served as the show\u2019s head writer from 2006 until his departure.<\/p>\n Asked in June by Variety<\/a> whether he\u2019ll consult for the new U.K. version, Meyers responded: \u201cI would love the offer, just for a boondoggle to the U.K. But I have not been asked.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Tina Fey and Tom Hanks welcome Paul Rudd into the SNL hosts\u2019 \u2018Five Timer Club\u2019 (NBC\/SNL)<\/p>\n Expanding further on his thoughts about the new spin-off, Meyers added: \u201cIt is exciting. It\u2019s so thrilling anytime anybody takes a big swing on anything. A lot of my former colleagues are working on it, and I think some of the funniest people in the world live in the U.K. So, it could be something special.\u201d<\/p>\n As for why the New York-based show has never previously recruited British comedians, Meyers joked: \u201cI think Lorne said, \u2018For the first 50 years, I just want to see if I can do it with Americans. And once we get our feet on firm footing, maybe we\u2019ll reach out to the international market.\u2019 I don\u2019t know!\u201d<\/p>\n Oliver, meanwhile, was speaking to Meyers on his Late Night show in May<\/a>, when he said a U.K. version <\/a>of the long-running sketch show would be \u201ca terrible idea.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had sketch comedy before, and I just feel like something like this is such a unique group,\u201d said Oliver.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a cult. I\u2019m trying to not say the word \u2014 it\u2019s a cult,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd so, I don\u2019t know how you can impose that cult onto the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n When Meyers then asked what made SNL seem like a \u201ccult,\u201d Oliver responded candidly about the cast members\u2019 tradition of staying up all night to rehearse \u2014 exactly the aspect of the U.S. show Fey said the British version should disregard.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m saying that\u2019s the kind of thing a cult leader would make you do,\u201d Oliver joked. \u201cWe stay up all night on Tuesdays, by the way!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-90427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2219718895.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Tina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755968052_230_newFile.jpg\")
<\/p>\n