Saturday Night Live UK may be headed for a bigger stage.
Sky’s deal to buy ITV’s network and streaming business still needs regulatory approval, but Deadline reports that Sky executives are already talking internally about how they might use ITV to give Sky originals a wider audience.
One show apparently high on that list: SNL UK. Sky could use ITV to air reruns of the show, giving it exposure on free-to-air television after premiering on Sky.
That would be a major shift for the show. SNL UK launched this spring on Sky One, where its overnight ratings were modest. The premiere drew 226,000 viewers at 10 p.m., while later episodes dipped as low as 130,100. Sky has argued that those numbers don’t tell the whole story, pointing instead to delayed viewing, repeats, and social media. By Sky’s broader measurement, the premiere reached 784,000 viewers, and the season averaged about half a million viewers across its run.
An ITV airing would put the show in front of a much larger audience. Unlike Sky, ITV1 is available in nearly every UK home, and its late-night Saturday programming typically reaches far more viewers than Sky One. A repeat airing could potentially add hundreds of thousands of viewers to SNL UK’s total audience.
It would also help solve one of Sky’s biggest challenges with the show: making it feel like a national comedy event, not just a pay-TV experiment.
There are still some big caveats. The Sky-ITV deal is not done, and it could take a long time to clear regulators. SNL UK’s second season is expected to premiere on Sky in September 2026, so any ITV boost likely would not happen until 2027 at the earliest.
And Sky may want to be careful. Once SNL UK airs on ITV, it will be judged more directly against other big Saturday-night shows on free TV. That could bring bigger numbers—but also bigger scrutiny.
Still, the upside is obvious. If Sky wants SNL UK to break through beyond its existing audience, ITV may be the fastest way to get it there.
