According to Deadline, Sky has now revealed more information about its plans to bring Saturday Night Live to the UK. Sky’s executive director of unscripted originals, Phil Edgar-Jones (Dance First, The Ghost of Richard Harris), stated that he wants to remake NBC’s renowned sketch show in order to bring “noise” and “chaos” to the screen. 

Edgar-Jones told the Edinburgh TV Festival,“It’s exciting, a little bit scary as well,” disclosing that Sky talent scouts are in the Scottish city figuring the potential next generation of comedy stars at the Fringe, Deadline states. 

Edgar-Jones spent a lot of time with SNL creator Lorne Michaels (30 Rock, Tommy Boy) and the U.S., and he confirmed that the executive producer of The Late Late Show With James Corden, James Longman (The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke), will be the showrunner of the UK version. Deadline first learned this in April. 

This series is set to be filmed in a BBC Studioworks facility, in which Edgar-Jones aspires to “capture the intimacy” of the NBC version, Deadline reports. 

He also stated that the show will be true to the American original but it “has to be a very British thing” if it is going to truly resonate with UK audiences. Edgar-Jones added: “It’s going to be a big employer, which is great.” Universal Television Alternative Studio and Michaels’ Broadway Video are producing, Deadline adds. 

Sky’s UK version is expected to launch in 2026 and become the most high-profile international version of the respected NBC late-night show, Deadline notes, following the remakes in Germany, China, South Korea, and Italy. 

SNL is well known to comedy fans in the UK, but they associate it mostly with viral online snippets rather than the full episodes on television. Full versions only started airing on Sky in 2020, with brief features on ITV4 in 2006. This UK version has been in the works for a few years, but Deadline only first disclosed its development at Sky in 2021.

In terms of replicating late-night American comedy series, the UK does not have a great record. ITV’s The Nightly Show was critically dumped after one season in 2017 and Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live aired for only three seasons at the start of last decade, Deadline finally mentions.