‘Saturday Night Live UK’ Just Pulled Off Something Few Remakes Ever Do

Remaking a beloved TV show comes with a simple problem: everybody already has opinions before you’ve made the thing. Change too much, and you’re accused of missing the point; change too little, and people wonder why you even bothered. Then there’s Saturday Night Live UK, which had the teensy-weensy added challenge of adapting one of the most American shows ever made for a British audience. And that was always its first hurdle, something London-born actor and producer Rafe Spall was quick to acknowledge when Collider brought up SNL UK during a recent interview about his Apple TV series, Trying. “In a world that has so many bad things going on, it’s nice to have a surprise every now and again, and one of them is that SNL UK turned out to be really good,” he said with a smile.

“Everyone in the country was ready for it to be shit, trust me. Like everyone was willing it almost, because it’s a very British thing, right? To sort of go like, ‘No, that’s rubbish.’” Admitting the British media was “sharpening their knives” before the series premiere in March, he reiterates how much of a fan he is and that it’s “turned out great,” on top of expressing his own interest in hosting — if granted the chance, of course.

After its Season 1 finale in May, SNL UK‘s reputation is far more favorable. People are no longer talking about it only as Britain’s attempt at an American institution. Its cast is creating moments that belong to this version of the show, while the series itself just took home Best Comedy at the 2026 Edinburgh TV Festival attended by Collider’s own reporter and critic, Greer Riddell, beating out shows from veterans like Steve Coogan and Guz Khan. Not to mention, Jack Shep’s wonderfully unhinged “Princess Di serves face in The Last Supper” also won TV Moment of the Year.

And this makes SNL UK’s first season more interesting than a remake, simply beating low expectations from a rather critical public. The rare thing the series has managed isn’t just making a spin-off series work, but getting people to care about what this version creates on its own outside of its American legacy.

‘Saturday Night Live UK’ Is Starting To Outgrow Its Famous Name

Obviously, having Saturday Night Live in the title is a good way to get people’s attention. After all, the American series is one of the funniest comedy institutions on TV. But a familiar format can only do so much once cameras start rolling, especially when every person behind the renowned Weekend Update desk or wearing a crazy wig has half a century of performers to be compared to. But Saturday Night Live UK quickly figured outthat the cast needed to be the reason to watch. Across its first season, its 11 players started building their own rhythms, characters and relationships without feeling like they were auditioning to become the United Kingdom’s version of something that came before them. Meaning, the format can be familiar, but the people inside it don’t have to.

Shep’s newly award-winning Princess Diana is perhaps the clearest example. It’s delightfully strange, very British, and now recognizable enough on its own to be named TV Moment of the Year. But the win also speaks to what the wider ensemble has built within its two-month run. The fun became seeing which cast member would pop up next, who would completely disappear into a character, or what Ania Magliano and Paddy Young might do behind the Weekend Update desk. And this matters more than we think, because a sketch show can’t live on a famous title forever.

Winning Best Comedy Changes the Conversation for ‘SNL UK’ Season 2

If the first season of SNL UK was introducing the spin-off, the second gets to enjoy a slightly different starting point this September. It doesn’t have to convince everyone that this whole thing can work anymore, because it does (and will) — and we’ll get another 12 episodes to see what it does next. But winning Best Comedy at the Edinburgh TV Festival Awards certainly helps. Though SNL UK was never competing in some specific “Best American Show We Made British” category, it did beat favorites like Changing Ends, How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, Man Like Mobeen and Pushers. In other words, it was being treated as British comedy, period. And rightfully, Shep taking TV Moment of the Year only added another trophy to the evening.

That’s also a pretty nice return on what was a pretty big swing by Sky. Each 75-minute episode reportedly costs around £2 million to make, more than four times the price of a traditional sketch show. But Sky’s director, Philip Edgar-Jones, says the investment is reaching exactly the kind of audience a new version of a 50-year-old institution needs: SNL UK has become Sky’s biggest show among 16-to-34-year-olds. “We’re in this for the long run, and we’re super proud of it, and super proud of the team,” Edgar-Jones said at the Edinburgh TV Festival on August 26. “Not to blow our own trumpet, but I think Saturday Night Live and [Prime Video’s] Last One Laughing have both shown that you can do comedy in very different ways on TV, and it can really work.”

And that last part may be the most telling. SNL UK is no longer a test case for whether Britain can borrow an American format. It feels like a show with its own audience, its own wins, and a cast that audiences are already showing up for. Season 2 doesn’t need to prove the concept anymore. It just needs to keep giving this ridiculously talented group room to make it theirs.

Saturday Night Live UK premieres September 12 on Sky and streams the next day in the U.S. on Peacock.