It turns out Sky CEO Dana Strong wasn’t kidding when she described Saturday Night Live UK as a “major investment in the UK comedy ecosystem” during the broadcaster’s showcase last week. Variety understands that each episode of the British version will cost around £2 million.
Variety also revealed that, unusually for a weekly entertainment production, SNL UK employs its largest studio at central London’s Television Center on a permanent (exclusive) basis throughout its eight-week run, with cast and crew sharing no space with any other production. There’s also no need to dismantle sets or clear out offices, galleries, editing rooms, or storage spaces between episodes. In these days of tight budgets, only a few production companies have the luxury of being able to do that.
The 10,800-square-foot TC1 studio is normally home to “The Graham Norton Show” — as Norton himself pointed out, appearing during Fey’s opening monologue on the first episode of “SNL UK.” His shows aren’t scheduled to resume until the fall.
This is another sign of Sky’s confidence in SNL UK. Originally scheduled for just six episodes, a last-minute vote of confidence increased the number to eight before the first episode aired. At Sky Showcase, held five days before the first episode aired, Strong described the show as “a point of pride for me” and “probably my most ambitious endeavor to date”.
The show’s weekly budget is still a long way off its US counterpart’s rumored $4m (£3m) per episode, but it’s almost unheard of for a hot British sketch show, even for a 75-minute show.
A typical British sketch show usually costs around £300,000 to £500,000 per episode, less than a quarter of SNL UK’s budget, sources told Variety.
They pointed out that it is one of the reasons why the sketch show format has become something of a dying art in the UK. “No one does them anymore because they’re expensive,” says one entertainment veteran. “Unlike dramas, popular programs don’t have reproducibility.”
In addition to two months of exclusive studio use, there’s no doubt that a significant portion of SNL UK’s budget went to its 11-strong cast and 20-person writing team, not to mention a production team that included Late Late Show with James Corden veteran James Longman as producer and SNL creator Lorne Michaels as executive producer. In addition, many of the sets and costumes must be created on tight deadlines as the writing team adapts to the current situation. event.
The first episode, hosted by Tina Fey, drew 226,000 viewers and received mixed reviews. Scott Bryan, reviewing the first episode for Variety magazine, said that there was a risk of being “too American” for British audiences, but that “there are enough one-liners to keep it going” even if the sketches don’t always work.
Online, especially on YouTube, “SNL” skits tend to be the most successful, with Fey’s opening monologue racking up more than 1.6 million views within 48 hours, followed by Keir Starmer’s cold opening with 1 million views.
Sky will no doubt be waiting to see what viewership numbers do next weekend when Fifty Shades star Jamie Dornan takes over as host from Fey, to see if the £16m investment is worth it.
Sky, the Comcast-owned network that produces and broadcasts the series in the UK, declined to comment.
