“Saturday Night UK” Episode 3 suffered the steepest decline in ratings yet, dropping 95,050 points from its season high. Riz Ahmed hosted the third episode with music by Kasabian.
Episode 3 received 130,950 viewers, equivalent to a 1.8% viewership rating. This is a 42% decrease from the first episode of the live comedy show, which drew 226,000 viewers, and a 36% decrease from episode 2, which was watched by 205,000 viewers.
Episode one was hosted by Tina Fey and featured cameos from celebrities including Michael Cera and Graham Norton, while episode two was hosted by “Fifty Shades” actor Jamie Dornan.
Episode 3 got off to a cold start with another skit in which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urges three of Britain’s top celebrities – footballer Harry Kane, actor Olivia Colman and cartoon character Peppa Pig – to cheer up the country. SNL UK cast member George Fouracres played Starmer, accompanied by Al Nash as Kane, Emma Siddy as Colman and Annabelle Marlowe as Peppa.
In his opening monologue, Ahmed made self-deprecating jokes about the British attitude to life, and also participated in sketches on such topics as “traitors”, the birth of the Easter Bunny, and the society of historical writers. At the time of publication, his monologue had amassed 41,000 views on YouTube in the 17 hours since it was posted. During the same period, the cold open racked up 227,000 views on the video-sharing platform.
In the Saturday 10pm slot, Channel 4’s “Bill Bailey: The Thinker” and BBC 2’s “Top of the Pops 1989” both drew more than twice as many viewers as “SNL UK,” with 342,000 and 444,000 viewers respectively. The Jonathan Ross Show in the same time slot on ITV had around 1 million viewers, while News on BBC 1 had more than 3 million viewers. However, while all of these channels are free to air, Sky, which broadcasts ‘SNL UK’, is not.
But the best performing show on Sky 1 that day was ‘SNL UK’. The film that preceded it, “Indiana Jones and the World of Doom,” was the second-largest showing, drawing an audience of 71,660.
Episode 4 will be hosted by Jack Whitehall and will feature musical guest Jorja Smith.
