The primary-ever version of “Saturday Night time Stay U.Ok.,” which aired from 10 p.m. on pay TV channel Sky One, drew a strong 226,000 viewers.
The present, which starred Tina Fey, and in addition featured Graham Norton, and was overseen by govt producer Lorne Michaels, had a 3.2% share of the TV viewers on the time, in line with official BARB figures provided by overnights.television.
It beat Channel 4 in the identical slot, which had screened “Mission: Unimaginable – Rogue Nation,” with 215,000 viewing. The “SNL U.Ok.” efficiency was virtually 4 occasions that achieved by “A League of Their Personal,” Sky’s largest leisure present, and surpassed the U.S. model of “SNL” on Sky Comedy channel, which took 5,000 final week.
The information on BBC One led the ten p.m. time interval with virtually 2 million viewers and a 25% share.
Selection reviewer Scott Bryan was typically upbeat when assessing the present.
“Fortunately, ‘Saturday Night time Stay U.Ok.’ largely took the fundamentals of what makes the U.S. model profitable — sketch comedy, rotating visitor hosts and the unpredictability of stay tv — and left the Brits to it. That’s the place it really works,” he wrote, including “the sketches are darker and extra surreal than its U.S. counterpart, the comedy far more deadpan.”
He concluded, “Promote it as one of many solely locations you may watch stay comedy and music at a time on British TV when there’s shockingly little of each, and so they is perhaps onto a winner.”
Crucial response elsewhere was additionally (tentatively) constructive. The Impartial’s Nick Hilton gave it three stars out of 5, commenting it had “some hits, some misses, and a bang-on Princess Di impression.”
Hilton applauded the present’s “willingness to push the envelope, to threat unhealthy style.”
He added, “Borrowing a beloved American format may really feel a bit stale, however there are notes of recent components that might supply one thing contemporary.”
The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan gave it the identical rating. “The final feeling, I feel, will probably be that the inaugural episode of ‘Saturday Night time Stay U.Ok.’ […] did work,” she stated.
“It might have been so much, lot worse,” she added. “And it might have been so much higher… actually – it felt refreshing to see an ambition/piece of insanity like retooling a legacy U.S. model for this septic isle even being tried.”
Charlotte Ivers within the Sunday Occasions welcomed the edgier humor. “There’s one thing fairly refreshing about seeing TV comedians actually push near the road,” she stated, earlier than including, “Sadly, in lots of circumstances the jokes don’t stay as much as the chance.”
