Saturday Night Live‘s UK debut continues to impress.
Last week’s series premiere of Saturday Night Live UK more than doubled its audience in consolidated viewing, rising from 226,000 viewers overnight to 528,000 after seven days, according to new ratings data first reported by Broadcast magazine.
The result makes the premiere Sky One’s most-watched program since the channel’s relaunch in February. (Originally launched in 1989, Sky One was retired in 2021, only to be revived this year.)
Produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio and Broadway Video, the live sketch show is already outperforming the slot’s historical averages by a wide margin—up more than 10 times compared to the weeks before SNL UK‘s premiere. When Sky One last operated in 2021, the same late-night Saturday window averaged just 115,000 viewers after seven days.
The show is also gaining traction online. Tina Fey’s monologue from the premiere has drawn 2.5 million YouTube views to date, while the cold open—a sketch imagining UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a call with Donald Trump—has drawn 1.7 million views.
Overnight ratings dipped slightly for the show’s second episode—down 9%—but the series still handily beat its competition. Meanwhile, the second episode’s “Prince Andrew Plan” cold open is on track to become its most-viewed YouTube clip yet.
Sky, for its part, is clearly looking to build on SNL UK‘s early momentum. This morning, the broadcaster revealed it will schedule just a single week break after the show’s initial four-episode run, with the cast and crew returning for another four episodes ahead of the planned May 16 season finale.
