‘Saturday Night Live’ Sets U.K. Edition, Launching on Sky in 2026
‘Saturday Night Live’ Sets U.K. Edition, Launching on Sky in 2026
variety.com
'Saturday Night Live' Sets 2026 U.K. Launch on Sky
7 comments
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Because in Britain we’ve always lacked satirist and sketch writers.
This is so shit.
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Do you have a history of live sketch comedy that’s what differentiates SNL from most comedy shows
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Yes we do
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500 years, give or take
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Every franchise dilutes the value of the brand. There’s rarely a good reason for this beyond “make more money.”
Sometimes, it works. The Office is a good example but it was a situation comedy re-contextualized for a different audience that wasn’t aware of the original.
A sketch comedy show can’t be treated the same way. You can’t transliterate the characters and jokes. So, it’s just going to be a format carbon copy with the name slapped on for no reason other than it’s recognizable. And, that means the name is expected to do some heavy lifting which doesn’t bode well.
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Lorne Michaels has done multiple comedy shows for Canadian and US audiences. There’s no reason to believe that this version of SNL won’t be focused on the UK.
They likely aren’t bringing sketches from the US show over just like SNL didn’t do SCTV bits. The only constant I would expect is “Weekend Update” which is in the middle of the show and is topical news jokes. That bit will only work if it is centered on UK politics and culture.
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7 comments