'SNL' Execs Make Major Announcement Set for 2026
Saturday Night Live will get a spinoff in the United Kingdom.
On April 10, a press release posted by NBC announced that Saturday Night Live UK will debut in the UK and Ireland in 2026. The European spinoff comes as the original SNL celebrates 50 years on American television.
In a statement about the surprise spinoff, Sky Studios CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz praised SNL creator Lorne Michaels for his 50 years at the helm of the NBC sketch comedy series. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Lorne and the SNL team to bring an all-British version of the show to UK audiences next year – all live from London on Saturday night!” the executive said in NBC's announcement.
The UK series will feature guest hosts and musical guests along with “a core cast of the funniest British comedians around,” the press release revealed.
Talk of the potential SNL UK first came in 2021. At the time, Deadline reported that a British version of the show was in development with Comcast-owned Sky Network. Michaels wasn't specifically named as a potential EP at that time.
Of the show he first created in 1975, Michaels told NBC10 the secret to its success was the ever-changing cast of hungry young newcomers who give the show “a different kind of energy. “I think people watch people develop on the show, and writers develop on the show, and designers develop on the show, and the host is different every week," Michaels said.
Michaels has been the show's one mainstay, and at age 80, he shows no signs of slowing down. He will continue to be the executive producer of Saturday Night Live at Studio 8H in New York City, while simultaneously working with the new UK-based version of the show.
Michaels hinted that he had no plans to retire in a February 2025 interview with The New York Times. Just ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary, the SNL showrunner said, “I may be wrong. But I don’t feel I’m done.”
Related: ‘SNL’ Addresses Morgan Wallen’s Stage Walk-Off With ‘Weekend Update’ Joke