Tina Fey to tell England "ya burnt" as SNL UK’s first host

The ex-Weekend Update correspondent will be ringing in the new era of Lorne-based domination on March 21, followed by Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed.

Tina Fey to tell England

Tina Fey will have the distinct honor of being SNL UK’s very first host, according to an Instagram post from SkyTV. Borrowing the original’s tradition of announcing dates, hosts, and musical guests on index cards, Sky officially confirmed that Fey would host the first show on March 21 with [Don Pardo voice] musical guest Wet Leg. Fey had previously been rumored to be hosting. The post also revealed future guests, too. Barb & Star star Jamie Dornan will host on March 28 with musical guest Wolf Alice, and Oscar winner Riz Ahmed will take the stage of Studio TC1 to say, “And now, Kasabian,” on April 4. 

The new series will essentially be the Saturday Night Live viewers know and love, with, you know, more accents and rhyming slang. However, per LateNighter, the show will run shorter than its American counterpart. Episodes of SNL UK will be 75 minutes as opposed to NBC’s 90. Frankly, that’ll probably help avoid SNL‘s penchant for sketches that run a minute too long. 

Last month, the show announced the cast for the series, and it includes Hammed Animashaun, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi, and Paddy Young. Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar—it’s a different country!—because The A.V. Club put together clips of their work in one easy to access article. This marks the 14th time SNL has attempted to export its vision for sketch comedy. Currently, only a South Korean version is still on the air, but given the country’s love of sketch, maybe the U.K. will bring the number of SNLs on television to an odd three. 

SNL UK premieres on March 21 on Sky.

 

 

 
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