First on LateNighter: Saturday Night Live UK has yet to air a single minute, but it has already solved a problem that’s plagued SNL itself from the start.
In short, time is on its side.
Even the strongest episodes of NBC’s SNL over the years have had to contend with that most ruthless of buzzkills: a “hard out” at 1:02:30 a.m. ET. To accommodate the fixed running time, entire sketches that have made it past dress rehearsal get cut—and, far more awkwardly, the last sketch of the night occasionally screeches to a premature halt.
The most persistent evidence of the show’s strict runtime is frequently on display during its end credits, which are cut off midstream more often than not. (In such instances, SNL‘s X account will share the complete closing crawl—lest “Announcer Darrell Hammond,” the last name listed, not get his due.)
SNL UK, though, will have some wiggle room with its own time slot.
Sky, which will air the sketch comedy series in the UK, has listed the official running time for each episode as “75 minutes,” compared to 90 for NBC’s SNL. But lead producer James Longman tells LateNighter’s Bill Carter that any given episode will land “between an hour and 90 minutes.”
Longman similarly told our podcast partner, Saturday Night Network, “we’ve got a bit of flexibility” with actual running time, adding: Sky has “been so supportive of that whole [scheduling] process.”
A Sky rep confirms for LateNighter there is “a small amount of flexibility” on SNL UK‘s weekly end time.
Even at a lean 75 minutes, SNL UK could deliver almost as much live content as a 90-minute episode of SNL. That’s because the UK’s Ofcom (Office of Communications) is a bit more stringent than our own FCC when it comes to limiting commercial minutes per hour. NBC’s SNL averages 68–70 minutes of actual live content across its hour-and-a-half time slot; SNL UK could rival that if it takes advantage of the “flexibility” afforded by Sky.
That said, there will still be times when “some [sketches] will be [cut], unfortunately,” Longman told SNN.
SNL UK premieres Saturday, March 21 on Sky and the streaming service NOW, with episodes streaming Stateside each Sunday on Peacock.
SNL vet Tina Fey will host the offshoot’s series premiere (watch promo), with musical guest Wet Leg. They’ll be followed by Northern Irish actor Jamie Dornan with musical guest Wolf Alice (on March 28), and British actor Riz Ahmed with “titans of rock” Kasabian (on April 4).
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(nerd glasses) technically, the broadcast’s hard out is 1:02:20. The network needs a minimum of 00:05 for a terminal promo (though they schedule a 00:15 promo, the director reserves the right to swap in a 00:05 version if the show’s running long; all three episodes in the latest run ended up running the same 5-second Reggie Dinkins spot) and the terminal station break is 00:35.
Adding to the confusion, is the technical delay in the show’s journey up through space and back down to Earth a few times and going through miles of cable and racks of equipment in NY, Dry Creek, CO (where NBC’s master control is located), your station, and then out over the air to potentially be further processed by a cable, satellite, or streaming provider, the times can be anywhere from 10 seconds to nearly a minute later than actual time they’re happening in the studio. But yes, the show’s start time is 11:29:30, and the broadcast in its entirety goes 01:33:30, which includes the terminal station break, ending at 1:03:00.
(nerd energy intensifies) re: “68-70 minutes”, that is inaccurate. With the sole exception of the aforementioned terminal network promo, which is supposed to be 00:15 but can be as short as 00:05, the rest of the show’s inventory (non-program time for ads, promos, and local stations) is precisely 24:25, which includes the “NBC Presents” peacock animation open (00:03). With a 15-second terminal promo, this totals 24:40, leaving 68:50 for program. With a 5-second terminal promo, it’s an even 69:00, which is nice.
If you only experience the full show as an upload on streaming, this knowledge would be unobtainable, as the streaming version always has full credit rolls and other edits to change the runtime from the live airing.
I love that you know this (and that you’ve shared it). Nerd glass clink!
Dayum…!
Your dangerous display name notwithstanding, it’s great that you presented these insights as a “nerd”..
…Instead of fan/stan.
So it’s basically the FX-esque flexibility offered for a variety show, I see.