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A British version of US comedy show Saturday Night Live is set to be made in the UK for the first time under plans being worked on between broadcaster Sky and American media group NBC.
Executives at Sky UK will bring in a British cast for the popular series, said several people close to the talks, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in the US.
The broadcaster on Thursday confirmed the plans, saying that SNL UK will “follow the same live, fast-paced style that has made the show a cultural phenomenon with iconic hosts, musical guests and a core cast of the funniest British comedians around”.
Sky is looking for more in-house hits for the UK to help offset the impact from the end of its exclusive deal to show HBO programming, the Warner Bros Discovery-owned network, which finishes next year.
Sky has agreed new deals to show HBO series such as Succession and The White Lotus in the UK via Warner’s streaming service Max, which will be included in a Sky subscription at no extra cost. However, these shows will also now be offered directly to consumers on Max and on commercial terms to rival platforms.
A British version of Saturday Night Live, created by television producer Lorne Michaels in 1975, has been rumoured for many years but has never been agreed. In the 1980s, a series called Saturday Live was broadcast on Channel 4, and then on ITV in the 1990s. While it was loosely styled on the US show — helping build the careers of Ben Elton, Harry Enfield, Rik Mayall, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie — there was no formal connection.
Media executives view the UK as a natural fit for Saturday Night Live given it has an established market for topical comedy shows and stand-up comedy.
SNL creator Michaels is set to be an executive producer for Saturday Night Live UK, in addition to continuing to executive produce SNL on NBC in the US.
The agreement is the latest sign of an increasingly close relationship between Sky and its US parent Comcast, the media conglomerate that also owns NBC, which broadcasts the show in the US.
Comcast acquired Sky in 2018 for about £30bn but has faced questions over the deal in the years since, with the UK broadcaster locked in a battle for viewers with Netflix and other US streaming services. Comcast took an $8.6bn writedown on Sky in 2022, which it blamed on the “challenging economic environment” in Europe.
However, Sky has been working more closely on commissioning and producing shows with Comcast-owned studios.
Last year, the UK broadcaster commissioned and co-produced The Day of the Jackal, the British spy thriller TV series based on the Frederick Forsyth novel, with NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock. It became the most watched original drama launch for both broadcasters.
Sky and Peacock also teamed up on Lockerbie: A Search for Truth and Comcast-owned Universal Pictures also owns the rights to Wicked, a musical that was turned into a movie filmed at Sky’s studios in Elstree.
Outside of broadcasting, Sky and Comcast collaborate on the development of technology used in smart TVs.
