‘SNL’ Gets U.K. Spin-Off, Even Though Brits Seem to Hate ‘SNL’

As part of Lorne Michaels’ continuing quest to make his once hip show seem about as edgy as a suburban Arby’s location, he has once again franchised the Saturday Night Live brand for an overseas market. 

There have already been a number of authorized international spin-offs of the SNL empire, including Egypt’s Saturday Night Live Arabia and France’s Le Saturday Night Live, which lasted for just one episode back in 2017. 

Now it’s been announced that the U.K. will be getting their own “star-studded” version of the late-night sketch show, which will premiere on Sky in 2026. The show will be filmed in London, and Michaels will serve as executive producer, which may or may not involve simply cashing a large check every week.

This news does beg the question: Do British people even like Saturday Night Live?

In recent years, there have been a few instances of Brits complaining about SNL, because the show has either butchered accents and/or misunderstood their culture. In 2024, viewers across the pond were reportedly pissed off by a Weekend Update segment that found James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman playing Liam and Noel Gallagher. U.K. fans complained that the comedians’ accents sounded nothing like the Oasis stars, who hail from Manchester. Nor did they sound like any human being ever in the history of the universe.

And in 2016, British viewers were similarly horrified by a Brexit-themed parody of The Great British Bake Off, which got several details about the beloved TV institution wrong. The Guardian called the sketch “not just horribly unfunny but misconceived.”

An old thread in the “Ask a Brit” subreddit inquired about the U.K.’s interest in SNL, and while it is by no means an authoritative survey, the responses to the post suggested that “SNL really has so little brand awareness outside of the U.S.,” and argued that the show is “not funny by Brit standards.” One person claimed that SNL’s sense of humor was more American, in that it’s “obvious and relies on speaking loudly and laughing when you want the audience to laugh.”

Incidentally, the U.K. once had their own, unofficial SNL in the ‘80s titled Saturday Live, which featured future stars like Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. But it only lasted for three seasons. 

It should also be noted that British comedy had a huge influence on the creation of Saturday Night Live; Michaels has often cited Monty Python’s Flying Circus as an inspiration for the show, and has claimed that seeing legendary British comedy revue Beyond the Fringe as a young man helped convince him to pursue a career in comedy rather than law.

So it could be argued that bringing SNL to England is a little like booking The Monkees to play in Liverpool.