First Episode Had Solid 226,000 Viewers for Sky

Saturday Night Live U.K. Makes Solid Debut on Sky One

The highly anticipated first-ever edition of “Saturday Night Live U.K.” premiered on pay TV channel Sky One at 10 p.m. and garnered a respectable 226,000 viewers.

The star-studded show, featuring Tina Fey and Graham Norton, and helmed by executive producer Lorne Michaels, captured a 3.2% share of the TV audience during its broadcast, as per official BARB figures provided by overnights.tv.

Surpassing Channel 4’s airing of “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” which drew 215,000 viewers in the same time slot, “SNL U.K.” outperformed Sky’s biggest entertainment show, “A League of Their Own,” by almost four times. Additionally, it exceeded the viewership of the U.S. version of “SNL” on Sky Comedy channel, which only attracted 5,000 viewers last week.

At the same time, BBC One’s news broadcast led the 10 p.m. time period with nearly 2 million viewers and a 25% share of the audience.

Critics had mixed reactions to “SNL U.K.” The Independent’s Nick Hilton awarded the show three stars out of five, noting that it had “some hits, some misses, and a bang-on Princess Di impression.”

Commenting on the show’s debut, Hilton cautioned against rushing to judgment, stating, “Judging a show like ‘SNL’ off its opening episode is foolish. What ‘SNL U.K.’s’ opening episode does demonstrate is a willingness to push the envelope, to risk bad taste.”

Likewise, The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan also gave the show three stars, expressing that the inaugural episode of “Saturday Night Live U.K.” was generally well received. She remarked, “It could have been a lot worse, and it could have been a lot better… honestly – it felt refreshing to see an ambition/piece of madness like retooling a legacy U.S. brand for this septic isle even being attempted.”