After more than half a century, the United States is finally exporting one of its most famous products: live sketch comedy aired late during the weekend. SNL is heading across the pond with the debut of Saturday Night Live UK. How will the show be similar to its iconic predecessor? How will it be different? We’ll find out soon enough when the series debuts on Sky on March 21. The show was originally set to have six episodes it its first season, but now that number has expanded to eight.
But we already know one thing that will feel very familiar to US audiences: the show’s opening sequence. Saturday Night Live UK‘s first official teaser looks just like its American counterpart’s intro. Saturday Night Live UK has also set its first three hosts… and they are very familiar too. Yes, Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey will host the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live UK; Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed will follow her.
Any place that gave us shows like Monty Python’s Flying Circus, I’m Alan Partridge, Fawlty Towers, The Office, and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace doesn’t exactly need America’s help making funny TV. A British sensibility combined with SNL’s format could produce something special, though.
…..But, this teaser can’t help but feel like a parody an American would make about a UK version of SNL. It has the exact vibe and look of the original show’s city-scape intro. Even the “Live, from London, it’s Saturday night” is unintentionally funny. Especially because it’s followed by some of the most British names ever. The cast stars Hammed Animashaun, Ania Magliano, Ayoade Bamgboye, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Larry Dean, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi, and Paddy Young. (Yes, we’re also exporting American SNL‘s most consistent problem: too many people in the cast.)
Not helping these vibes is Saturday Night Live UK‘s choice of first hosts. Tina Fey, as mentioned, will be back in the SNL seat for the first episode of Saturday Night Live UK on March 21. She’ll be joined by musical guest Wet Leg. Following Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan will take on the hosting role on March 28, with Riz Ahmed stepping in on April 4.
The only reason I’m confident these are all actual performers and not made up people in a spoof is because I know some of them from Taskmaster (a.k.a. the greatest show in the world you aren’t watching).
Is this Saturday Night Live UK teaser a sign of just how similar the two series will actually be? Maybe! And that might not be a bad thing. SNL obviously has a format that works. Whether it will work in the UK is something we’ll all find out together. Live.
Originally published on March 16, 2026.