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When SNL UK premiered in March, it did so with a monologue from host Tina Fey<\/a>, former head writer of the flagship American comedy series. In a back and forth with Irish actor Nicola Coughlan, playing the classic SNL role of \u201ccelebrity audience plant\u201d, Fey said she got the gig because \u201cnone of you f—ers would do it\u201d \u2013 immediately signalling that this new version of the notoriously censored original would have a little more bite.<\/p>\n Local talent probably avoided the gig, Coughlan remarked because \u201cBritish people tend to root for the failure of others.\u201d Halfway through the show\u2019s second season, nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n Related Article The spin-off, executive produced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels, has not just found its stride but is running laps around its American counterpart, which is having a run of dire, lethargic episodes and is in the headlines for the sexist monologue from most recent host, comedian Shane Gillis<\/a>. While he was issuing an apology for accidentally swearing on last week\u2019s episode, the UK version made the most of their \u201clawless\u201d standards for cursing<\/a> \u2013 and got a few of their own shots in<\/a>.<\/p>\n SNL UK\u2019s sketches and impressions skewering local celebrities and news with a distinctly British flavour are only picking up steam. In a cold open<\/a> that\u2019s racked up more than 2 million views on YouTube, King Charles meets with socially inept American tech billionaires who have created an AI assistant for him. The Deeply Intelligent Autonomous Neurokinetic Android \u2013 or D.I.A.N.A. \u2013 wears a revenge dress, decides she \u201cshan\u2019t be taking orders any more\u201d and goes full Terminator. It\u2019s material that would work anywhere, but is right at home in the world of non-rhotic accents.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople kept asking us how are we going to do a British spin on [SNL]? But actually, we\u2019ve been doing sketch [comedy] in this country forever,\u201d Paddy Young tells me over Zoom. He and Ania Magliano are two stand-ups who, after rounds of auditions she describes as \u201ca series of live gigs to audiences and then also screen tests to complete silence in these vast TV studios\u201d, were paired up behind the desk as co-anchors of the Weekend Update segment.<\/p>\n They describe the format of the show as a skeleton, one that mimics the specific structure of its source material, with fleshy bits they build out fresh each week. Every Friday it feels impossible to pull off. But as Michaels famously said: \u201cThe show doesn\u2019t go on because it\u2019s ready; it goes on because it\u2019s 11.30.\u201d On Sunday, it\u2019s done, and on Monday, you start building out the guts all over again.<\/p>\n While every cast member pulls their weight and finds their niche, Weekend Update anchors are the ones who do it in their voice. Ever since the inaugurator uttered the words, \u201cI\u2019m Chevy Chase, and you\u2019re not\u201d in 1975, the anchors are also the only SNL cast members to announce themselves by name on live TV every week.<\/p>\n The dynamic between a pair of hosts is its own specific alchemy. Fey and Jimmy Fallon gave off a teacher\u2019s pet holding down the fort next to a practical joker. Seth Meyers was the straight man to Amy Poehler\u2019s most base instincts. The current co-anchors, Colin Jost and Michael Che, have a fratty frenemies quality.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning, before the first season, we were talking more explicitly about our dynamic,\u201d Magliano says. \u201cIs this something we need to create and decide? But then when Seth Meyers was over visiting, he said to us, \u2018You don\u2019t need to plan any of this. Literally just focus on telling the jokes and the right stuff will come out\u2019. It\u2019s really useful to have some people \u2026 who can just be confident for you when we didn\u2019t necessarily have the experience to be fully confident in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe moment you try and shock or pull people\u2019s heartstrings, that\u2019s not the game. All we\u2019re worried about is being funny.\u201d<\/p>\n Paddy Young As two gigging comics, Young and Magliano know what it feels like to be alone on stage as a joke thuds in the room, or to not have anyone to pat you on the back after a particularly stellar show. \u201cIt is nice that we\u2019re up there together,\u201d Magliano says. \u201cWhen you do stand-up and you\u2019re up there on your own, you\u2019re sort of like, \u2018Here we go. This is a judge of my character and my soul, whether I\u2019m good enough on a fundamental level\u2019. But when we\u2019re doing it as a team, if it goes badly, we\u2019re crashing and burning together.\u201d<\/p>\n The show\u2019s overnight ratings on Sky One and streaming service NOW average about 140,000 viewers on Saturday nights, but it\u2019s a show built for catch-up and online audiences. In April, Deadline reported the show had more than 86 million views<\/a> of individual clips on Instagram Reels and YouTube.<\/p>\n The cottage industry of streamers and tiny-microphone reaction accounts<\/a> further boosted the status of the show recently, thanks to Weekend Update\u2019s ruthless teardown of Ed Sheeran<\/a> after he bowed to pressure from billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft. While its American contemporaries covering the story barely went further than a gag about Macklemore\u2019s music being bad, Magliano and Young left nothing in the tank.<\/p>\n During the segment\u2019s two-minute run, Magliano pointed out the hypocrisy of Sheeran being an advocate for \u201ccauses that are allowed\u201d like the war in Ukraine. \u201cGenuinely though, this crisis is the worst thing that\u2019s happened to Ed Sheeran fans since their head injury,\u201d she said biting back a smile, while Young joked that Jeffrey Epstein \u201chad himself killed\u201d to avoid being associated with \u201cwealthy corpsemaxxer\u201d Kraft.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the moment you try and shock or pull people\u2019s heartstrings or whatever, that\u2019s not the game,\u201d he says. \u201cAll we\u2019re worried about is being funny and being funny in as many ways as possible.\u201d And if there are any hard lines holding them back from going too far? \u201cWe just let other people tell us what the limits are. We just try and make everything as funny as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time the clips started getting traction online, they were already at their desks trying to work new jokes about Prince Andrew\u2019s bodily fluids into the next weekend\u2019s packet of punchlines.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we did that Ed Sheeran thing, we were really proud of it, and we heard that people liked it, but we were back in the office on Tuesday worrying about the next thing,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n Magliano adds that the job can be like a hamster in a wheel, with little time to pause and reflect on its impact. \u201cThere\u2019s a thing in stand-up \u2026 you only feel as good as your last gig. And so I do think the threat of the looming week does mean you can\u2019t spend too much time being self-congratulatory about what did work, or being self-negative about what didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9a89fa05f049b561c863589832bb1d79facf376c529c43a24b8fa88d5d7ddbce.gif\")
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Paddy Young and Ania Magliano, hosts of Weekend Update.HBO Max<\/p>\n![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5e771d3012d05e39f587217f650ee6cefe791dd3.jpeg\")
Jeff Goldblum (right) hosts an episode of Saturday Night Live UK.HBO Max<\/p>\n
![\"Megan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06d6820c577bc22738a6b43ad32f94c9bf62c3cd.jpeg\")
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