Last Week Tonight host John Oliver doesn’t have high hopes for the recently announced U.K. version of Saturday Night Live.
“It sounds like a terrible idea,” the England-born former The Daily Show reporter said during a Monday night appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “We have had sketch comedy [in England] before, and it just feels like Saturday Night Live is a unique group…it’s a cult. I don’t know how you’re going to impose that cult onto the UK.”
Last month Sky TV announced that Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels would serve as executive producer on a British version of the long-running live late night sketch show, which is scheduled to premiere in 2026.
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Several international editions of Saturday Night Live have been launched over the years, but with the exception of a rather successful Korean edition, most have not lasted very long.
At the very least, Oliver hopes the British Saturday Night Live doesn’t follow one of the American show’s more exhausting traditions. “What night is it you stay up all night, Tuesday?,” he asked Meyers, who was an SNL cast member from 2001 to 2014. “That’s ridiculous. I’m saying that’s the kind of thing a cult leader would make you do. It doesn’t have to be dictated to the day that you must not sleep on that day or the great leader will be irritated.”
The 50th season of the original Saturday Night Live is set to conclude May 17 with host Scarlett Johansson and musical guest Bad Bunny.
Watch John Oliver Discuss a British Version of ‘Saturday Night Live’
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