Ratings on SNL UK stabilized on Saturday night.
The fourth episode of the first-ever British version of the show, which now takes a week hiatus, was watched by 120,000 viewers on Saturday night, grabbing a share of 1.6% of Brits who were watching TV at the time.
This was a small decline of 10,000 on the prior week but in British ratings terms is effectively a plateau and will likely lead to a sigh of relief among the SNL UK creative team and executives at Sky.
The audience had plummeted the previous week by almost 40% to a low of 130,000, according to official overnight BARB figures supplied by overnights.tv.
SNL UK remains above what an average Sky show gets in the late Saturday slot. It also continues to beat the U.S version of the sketch series, which is shown on Sky Comedy. It airs on Peacock in the States.
Saturday’s episode was hosted by British comic and Malice actor Jack Whitehall. The cold open was SNL UK’s most American yet, taking aim at Melania Trump, who was played by Emma Sidi in a sketch in which she reassured BBQers in a borough of south London that she definitely isn’t buddies with disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In an echo of the First Lady’s unexpected press statement this week, Sidi mimicked: “Never have I ever been friends with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.” The south London BBQers were confused.
Whitehall’s opening monologue included jokes about his upcoming wedding (to model partner Roxy Horner), largely lamenting the cost and need to socialize with so many people. “It’s like planning a royal wedding,” Whitehall quipped. “The whole thing could be ruined if my uncle turned up.”
Keir Starmer, Peter Mandelson, Donald Trump, Rishi Sunak, Palantir, Scott Mills and the Grand National were among others to catch strays during the satire show. Jorja Smith was the musical act.
SNL UK takes a break this Saturday before returning the following week for four more eps that will conclude the first season.
