{"id":553924,"date":"2026-03-22T20:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553924\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T20:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:42:10","slug":"first-episode-had-solid-226000-viewers-for-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553924\/","title":{"rendered":"First Episode Had Solid 226,000 Viewers for Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe first-ever edition of \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a> U.K.,\u201d which aired from 10 p.m. on pay TV channel Sky One, drew a solid 226,000 viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show, which starred Tina Fey<\/a>, and also featured Graham Norton, and was overseen by executive producer Lorne Michaels, had a 3.2% share of the TV audience at the time, according to official BARB figures supplied by overnights.tv.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt beat Channel 4 in the same slot, which had screened \u201cMission: Impossible \u2013 Rogue Nation,\u201d with 215,000 viewing. The \u201cSNL<\/a> U.K.\u201d performance was almost four times that achieved by \u201cA League of Their Own,\u201d Sky\u2019s biggest entertainment show, and surpassed the U.S. version of \u201cSNL\u201d on Sky Comedy channel, which took 5,000 last week.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe news on BBC One led the 10 p.m. time period with almost 2 million viewers and a 25% share.<\/p>\n

\n\tVariety reviewer Scott Bryan was generally upbeat when assessing the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThankfully, \u2018Saturday Night Live U.K.\u2019 largely took the basics of what makes the U.S. version successful \u2014 sketch comedy, rotating guest hosts and the unpredictability of live television \u2014 and left the Brits to it. That\u2019s where it works,\u201d he wrote, adding \u201cthe sketches are darker and more surreal than its U.S. counterpart, the comedy much more deadpan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe concluded, \u201cMarket it as one of the only places you can watch live comedy and music at a time on British TV when there\u2019s shockingly little of both, and they might be onto a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCritical reaction elsewhere was also (tentatively) positive. The Independent\u2019s Nick Hilton gave it three stars out of five, commenting it had \u201csome hits, some misses, and a bang-on Princess Di impression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHilton applauded the show\u2019s \u201cwillingness to push the envelope, to risk bad taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cBorrowing a beloved American format might feel a bit stale, but there are notes of new ingredients that could offer something fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Guardian\u2019s Lucy Mangan gave it the same score. \u201cThe general feeling, I think, will be that the inaugural episode of \u2018Saturday Night Live U.K.\u2019 [\u2026] did work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt could have been a lot, lot worse,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd it could have been a lot better\u2026 honestly \u2013 it felt refreshing to see an ambition\/piece of madness like retooling a legacy U.S. brand for this septic isle even being attempted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCharlotte Ivers in the Sunday Times welcomed the edgier humor. \u201cThere\u2019s something quite refreshing about seeing TV comedians really push close to the line,\u201d she said, before adding, \u201cSadly, in many cases the jokes don\u2019t live up to the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first-ever edition of \u201cSaturday Night Live U.K.,\u201d which aired from 10 p.m. on pay TV channel Sky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,28371,34566,214375,101033,348],"class_list":["post-553924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-snl","tag-snl-u-k","tag-tina-fey","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}