Saturday Night Live UK Extends Season 1 Ahead Of Launch Episode

The team behind Saturday Night Live UK has announced that the inaugural season will now be running for an additional two more episodes.

Originally, the UK edition of SNL was supposed to run for just six episodes, but Sky confirmed on Friday morning that this has been bumped up to eight.

SNL legend Tina Fey is due to present the first instalment of the British show this weekend, with Brit Award winners Wet Leg serving as the episode’s musical guests.

Following this, Fifty Shades Of Grey star Jamie Dornan and Oscar winner Riz Ahmed will host episodes two and three respectively, with performances from Wolf Alice and Kasabian.

The remaining five guest hosts and musical performers will be unveiled in due course.

Lorne Michaels, who created SNL in 1975, will be acting as the UK show’s executive producer, working alongside a team of 20 writers and a regular cast of 11 comedians, which includes Taskmaster alum Emma Sidi and Ania Magliano, Black Ops star Hammed Animashaun and TikTok fave Jack Shep.

For the most part, SNL UK will be following the same format as the long-running American version, in which a different host performs sketches alongside the regular cast in front of a live studio audience each week.

Written the week of the filming, the 75-minute episodes will be made up of an opening monologue from the guest presenter, sketches featuring the house cast, live performances from the week’s musical act and a more British-centric take on SNL’s satirical news segment, Weekend Update.

As was reported by Deadline, producer James Longman said earlier this week that SNL UK had “borrowed the US house” but was planning on “building our own rooms” while discussing how the two series would compare.

Saturday Night Live UK will launch this Saturday (March 21) on Sky and Now TV. Watch a teaser below: