London is calling for Tina Fey.
The ten-time Emmy winner and Saturday Night Live alum has officially been announced as host for the Saturday, March 21 series premiere of SNL UK.
The Isle of Wight indie sensation Wet Leg will serve as the sketch comedy series’ inaugural musical guest.
Following Fey to Studio 8H TC1 will be Northern Irish actor Jamie Dornan with musical guest Wolf Alice (on March 28), followed by British actor Riz Ahmed with “titans of rock” Kasabian as musical guest (on April 4).
Dornan’s credits include Belfast, the Fifty Shades film franchise, and TV’s The Tourist.
Ahmed has starred on TV’s Girls and The OA, is a two-time Academy Award nominee (and winner in 2022 for Best Live Action Short Film), and he has Bait, a Prime Video comedy he wrote and stars in, premiering March 25.
“Together, this first wave of hosts, musical guests and cast members marks the beginning of a bold new chapter for the globally acclaimed SNL franchise,” reads a Sky press release, “blending its storied legacy with a fresh generation of British comedy voices.”
Across the pond, SNL UK will air on Sky and stream on NOW, live at 10 p.m. GMT (or 6 p.m. ET). Stateside, episodes will stream on Peacock the next day.
Episodes will run 75 minutes (versus the 90 of NBC’s SNL), Sky has announced.
The international offshoot’s pick for a leadoff host is American, yes, but most apt. Fey was on record as being open to host SNL UK, telling GoldDerby last June, “Oh, if someone wants to give me a free trip to England, I’m on my way to the airport.”
Asked for her thoughts on how the UK adaptation might fare, Fey noted that SNL has been adapted (with varying degrees of success) in 13 other countries, starting with Germany in 1993. SNL UK, however, represents the first official English-language adaptation.
“I am very curious to see, because British humor is very different from American humor,” she noted. “In my limited experience, American and Australian humor is kind of the same, and British humor is weird and different. So we’ll see.”
Fey first joined NBC’s SNL in 1997 as a writer, and later was upped to head writer—the long-running series’ first female to hold that position. In 2000, she joined the show’s cast and became “Weekend Update” co-anchor alongsideJimmy Fallon, and then Amy Poehler.
Fey exited SNL after the 2005-06 season to develop the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, but has returned to host a total of six times (most recently in May 2018, with musical guest Nicki Minaj). She also is known to pop up on the show now and again in an unannounced appearance.
In addition to her television work, Fey also wrote and co-starred in the iconic film comedy Mean Girls, and co-starred opposite Poehler in the 2008 comedy Baby Mama. Her credits also include Date Night with Steve Carell, and A Haunting in Venice.
On stage, Fey wrote the Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls, which opened in 2018 and received 12 Tony Award nominations.
In all fairness, in the UK, Kasabian are arguably “titans” indeed.