{"id":616901,"date":"2026-06-02T11:28:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/616901\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:28:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:28:50","slug":"snl-uk-producer-on-the-early-criticism-of-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/616901\/","title":{"rendered":"‘SNL UK’ Producer On The Early Criticism Of The Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe barrage of online skepticism and discussion about SNL UK<\/a> was a useful tool that the show\u2019s producers used to shape and develop their version of the long-running series, Helen Kruger Bratt, Managing Director of Universal Television Alternative Studio, said this morning at Deadline\u2019s Reality TV Summit in London.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBratt, who oversees production on the UK edition, appeared this morning at the London Summit, which is being held as part of this year\u2019s SXSW London<\/a> festival, alongside Natalka Znak (Remarkable Entertainment, Initial, Znak TV),\u00a0 David Brindley (Twofour), Tim Harcourt (Studio Lambert), and Ben Crompton (Fremantle).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was about a five-year labor of love,\u201d Kruger Bratt said when quizzed on the lengthy journey that brought SNL to the United Kingdom. Most of that work, she said, predated the start of her tenure. And the final product, she explained, was helped greatly by the overarching influence of the U.S. edition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat was beautiful is that it\u2019s a legacy, so you\u2019ve got the foundations of what it takes to make that show,\u201d Kruger Bratt said, adding that the online criticism about the show before it ran and during the release was used by the show\u2019s team to shape episodes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat went in its favour was that it was talked about so much even before it was on air, and not necessarily in a great way, and actually, I think that played into our favour in that we were able to take on board that criticism and address them in the show,\u201d Kruger Bratt said. \u201cSo it\u2019s all about engaging in that conversation and not shying away from it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKruger Bratt added: \u201cWe really leaned into that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKruger Bratt continued to say that cynics about the UK edition assumed the show would be populated by the \u201csame old faces\u201d of the UK comedy scene when, in actuality, the producers had been \u201csending teams to Edinburgh and doing open auditions to bring a new generation to the comedy scene.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKruger Bratt also praised Sky for its robust support of the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were very lucky to have Sky as a partner who put the money behind it,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cIt takes a lot of money to produce this show. You have to trust the process. The social and marketing campaign Sky put behind this \u2014\u00a0we were very lucky.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSNL UK wrapped an eight-episode run in May and was promptly renewed for a second season. The show will return in September with an extended 12 episodes. The first season has featured hosts including Aimee Lou Wood, Nicola Coughlan and Tina Fey. Ncuti Gatwa hosted the last episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere during this morning\u2019s session, the panelists were quizzed on the general trends currently shaping the non-scripted market. Crompton described international buyers in the market right now as \u201crisk-averse.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe biggest trend from the business side is that we, as producers, need to try and remove as much of that risk as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are still massive shows being made, and really exciting shows. I don\u2019t believe in the death of unscripted. But the audiences have just become a bit more discerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZnak said the most common ways to mitigate the risk today as unscripted producers is reducing cost and working with old formats with existing fanbases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s much easier to sell old formats than it is to sell new,\u201d she said, \u201cwhich is really tricky and not helpful for most companies who don\u2019t have access to a format catalog.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tZnak continued to joke that her company has some \u201cgreat old shows\u201d and she\u2019s thought about \u201crepackaging my own shows and pretending they\u2019re not my shows and saying they\u2019re from Japan to sell them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was saying that to my development team,\u201d she joked. \u201cBuyers need something to go on. They need reassurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Deadline Reality TV Summit runs today at SXSW London. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The barrage of online skepticism and discussion about SNL UK was a useful tool that the show\u2019s producers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,207729,170739,192344,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-616901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-reality-tv-summit-uk","tag-snl-uk","tag-sxsw-london","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}