What did critics think of Saturday Night Live UK’s debut?

The first episode of Saturday Night Live UK has hit our screens – 50 years after the US original – and largely got a warm welcome from critics, but it failed to raise a smile with some.

When it was announced, there was wariness about how the comedy sketch show would translate for a British audience. That was partly assuaged when the cast, made up of up-and-coming talent rather than established names, was announced.

As with the American version, each episode has a guest host and the British debut was fronted by Tina Fey, who made her name as a cast member on SNL.

There were also surprise appearances from stars including Nicola Coughlan and Graham Norton.

The overall feeling was that there were hits and misses during the 75-minute opener on Sky One, with its skits on Paddington, Hamnet and Sir David Attenborough.

The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan says: “It could have been a lot worse.”

Giving it three stars, she says the overall feeling was that the show “did work”, with some “proper jokes for grown-ups” especially in the Weekend Update section riffing on the news.

Mangan points out that the team and audience need to “build up a rhythm and rapport with the show”, adding “it felt refreshing to see an ambition / piece of madness… even being attempted”.

Saturday’s debut show, overseen by SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, followed the same format as the US original: an opening monologue from the guest host, two pre-recorded sketches and four live ones, as well as two songs from Wet Leg.

In Variety, Scott Bryan points out how rare it is to see British comedy – let alone a sketch show – on TV, noting the substantial investment put into the show.

He says it took the basics of the US show and “left the Brits to it”, describing it as “darker and more surreal than its US counterpart”.

Like other critics, he singles out cast member Jack Shep’s Princess Diana impression – in a sketch that saw Sir David revive late British icons for the ultimate dinner party – for praise, but added “the sketch itself didn’t land”.

What worked best for Bryan was the more British and surreal elements, like “Cilla Black impressions” and William Shakespeare returning to Stratford-on-Avon from London on a stolen scooter and wearing short shorts.

As is traditional, the show opened with a “cold open” political sketch, starting before the credits.

It showed cast member George Fouracres as a bumbling Sir Keir Starmer, being coached by deputy PM David Lammy, played by Hammed Animashaun, and a Gen Z adviser on how to speak to US President Donald Trump.

Fey, a former SNL head writer as well as cast member, gave a monologue which also served as an introduction to the show for those unaware of its US counterpart.

This is where Derry Girls star Coughlan popped up from the audience, shrewdly observing that British people “tend to root for the failure of others”. Her Bridgerton co-star Rege-Jean Page and Canadian film star Michael Cera also made cameos.

Ed Power in the Daily Telegraph says the show was “shockingly competent”, giving it a four-star review, even though the Sir Keir sketch had a “whiff of hastily written student sketch” and much of it was “hit or miss”.

Power enjoyed Weekend Update especially, with news anchors Ania Magliano and Paddy Young “full of charm, as they side-eyed the camera and struggled to keep straight faces”.

In the Financial Times, Rebecca Nicholson says SNL UK is “clearly trying to find its own voice”, singling out the “close to the bone” Weekend Update and a “witty and dark” cosmetics ad where the joke is that it makes women look too young.

The final two sketches are the “weirdest and most fun”, she notes, with Emma Sidi’s character Jugs running a bra-fitting service and Fouracre’s “screamed song about Irish granddads”.

“This could be a proper home for live comedy, fresh new comics, and punchlines with surprisingly sharp teeth,” she concludes.

Nick Hilton, writing in the Independent, gives it three stars, saying it “has to work as a collection of clips” to survive in a world where linear TV is no longer king.

He nods to a “handful of hits” – including a Paddington immersive experience featuring a very real, very hungry bear – and while some fell flat, “at least they’re willing to hazard their audience taking offence”.

For Charlotte Ivers in the Times, despite the spoof skincare ad raising a smile, “the spark is not there yet”.

She praises a physical comedy joke featuring a spokesman from the helium industry, but says the overall problem is with “tone and style”.

While she is glad it did not shy away from being edgy, “in many cases the jokes don’t live up to the risk”, describing one on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as being akin to one “from four-year-olds who are learning how comedy works”.

There was even harsher critique from Baz Bamigboye in Deadline, describing it as “beyond seriously unfunny” and lamenting that he didn’t laugh once.

“Stale, pale sketches that seemed to have been exhumed from some old codger’s book of gags” is his verdict – also questioning the 22:00 slot, as “the cool cats aren’t in front of their television sets” at that time.

But as he adds – much of the success from SNL in the US is from viral clips, with not so many watching live.

The debut show 226,000 viewers, a 3.2% audience share, according to overnight viewing figures from BARB. Over on YouTube, a clip of Fey’s monologue had already gained more than 700,000 views on YouTube by Sunday afternoon.

The eight-part series is being broadcast each week on Sky, and is recorded live (as the title suggests) in front of a studio audience.

Next week’s show will be hosted by actor Jamie Dornan, with Brit Award-winning Wolf Alice providing the music.

While there were weeks of preparation for the launch show, the second will be put together in just seven days – which could be the real test for the cast and writers.