Saturday Night Live UK gets a second season. Will it be its last?
To no great surprise, SNL UK has been renewed for a second season. What is a surprise is how quickly they’re moving on season 2, with the show expected back for a run of 12 episodes that will begin in September and run through to early 2027.
The narrative surrounding the show is that everyone loves it and it is performing gangbusters on social media. So, it makes sense to get moving on that second season quickly and keep the momentum moving
But… someone still has to pay to get the show made. And the week-to-week ratings haven’t been all that sunny.
After debuting at 226,000 viewers, the viewership has dropped dramatically, with subsequent episodes doing between 119,540 for episode four, hosted by Jack Whitehall to 143,700 for the most recent Aimee Lou Wood-hosted episode (it’s sixth).
With a reported £2 million per episode budget, this is a pricey show to mount for what is a fairly limited audience. They’re good figures for a show on pay provider Sky, but the question ultimately comes down to whether Sky is seeing enough bang for its buck for the show to become an ongoing proposition.
The only question that ultimately matters: Is it driving subscribers? We’ll know the answer to that if Sky commissions a third season. Right now the show has some green shoots of promise, but a pay TV network isn’t in the business of spending big only to drive YouTube viewership.
My own personal take on the UK show is that it takes far too much from the US SNL and doesn’t do enough to be its own thing. But, that’s what you get with an imported format…
It’d make a bit more sense to me if they could find a way to run the UK version during the off-season for the US version, giving audiences more fresh SNL across the year. It’s weird having two concurrent Saturday Night Lives on the air in any given week.
Read: THR
News Desk
Lizzy Caplan is joining The Morning Show on Apple TV for season 5. It’s a shame we can’t replace the words “The Morning Show” with “Party Down,” but the world is a harsh mistress. Read: Deadline
Aussie reality doc format Muster Dogs will be adapted for the US with a new Prime Video series. Read: Deadline
In a show with Dave Letterman at the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, John Mulaney said that he still has another season of Everybody’s in LA for Netflix. Read: THR
David Letterman will be a guest on the May 14 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. On May 11, Colbert will interview other late night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. Read: Variety
Former General Hospital star Mark Hamill (he was probably in something else…) is copping it online after posting a picture of a dead Donald Trump to his Bluesky account. The White House has called him ‘sick.’ Read: Deadline
Jason Katims (Parenthood) will showrun a remake of Highway To Heaven. Read: THR
Fox has renewed Murder in a Small Town for a third season. Read: thefutoncritic
Bridgerton will launch a collaboration with The Sims 4. Read: Variety
Trailer Park
TV series adaptation Cape Fear debuts on Apple TV June 5 and stars Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, and Javier Bardem. Watch out for all those rakes, Javier Bardem.
Life, Larry, and The Pursuit of Unhappiness debuts on HBO Max June 26.
Alice and Steve debuts on Hulu June 8.
Alice & Steve is a hilarious, messy, and complicated exploration of friendship, love, and revenge. The show is described as an anti-romantic comedy (a wrong-com) that asks the question: how far would you go for love – or revenge? Will Alice forgive Steve? Will Steve and Izzy make a relationship work? Amongst all the questions hanging in the balance, one thing is certain: their lives will never be the same.
Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You debuts on Netflix June 18.
An innocent father serving life for the murder of his own son receives evidence that his child may still be alive - and must break out of prison to find out the truth.
Kartavya debuts 15 May on Netflix.
With his family's safety at stake and menacing threats closing in, a police officer must decide how far he'll go to uphold his duty.
Teach You a Lesson debuts on Netflix June 5.
When respect collapses in schools, unconventional inspectors arrive to set things right - with sharp, no-nonsense lessons you won't find in textbooks.
NZ show Bust Up debuts on Sky Open on Tuesday, May 27 at 8.30pm, with new episodes dropping weekly and available to stream on NEON from the same day.
Deb and Mihi - ex-partners in life - are forced to partner up again as cops
The Australian ABC revival of Race Around The World debuts June 7.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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I'm quite enjoying SNL UK. I've never gotten into the US version. Tried to watch it a couple of times and it just wasn't for me.
SNL UK is also one of the few shows I watch live. Or live(ish). I've found 22:20 is the sweet spot to start in order to skip the ads and music (the music is definitely its weak point) and still end when the show ends around 23:15.