Lorne Michaels challenges ‘Saturday Night Live UK’ to be “cooler” than US original
Lorne Michaels has revealed that he challenged Saturday Night Live UK to be “cooler” than the original Saturday Night Live.
Michaels created the US long-running sketch series in 1975 and remains the showrunner, pulling all of the strings behind-the-scenes, more than half a century later.
He is also involved in the UK counterpart, Saturday Night Live UK, where he serves as an executive producer.
Since its launch in March, it has welcomed Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Riz Ahmed, and Jack Whitehall as guest hosts, which has helped it get off to a strong start despite audience sizes dropping af the season premiere.
Now, Michaels, who is the subject of the new documentary Lorne, said at the premiere for the film on April 14th (via Variety), “My design for it was that it would be the cooler of the two shows, and it would be the thing they beat us up with that. That it’s smarter, funnier, more original, and it had to be that.”
He then explained that for Saturday Night Live UK to thrive rather than survive in the shadows of its older American brother, “It had to be its own thing,” before adding, “It couldn’t be an imitation of what we do.”
Michaels’ comments come after SNL UK cast member Hammed Animashaun revealed in an exclusive interview with Far Out that the comedy legend is “very involved” in the British version.
The comedic actor continued, “This is his baby. He knows exactly how this thing is supposed to go. And he also understands that because this is SNL UK, it’s going to come with a different flavour. And he’s been completely open about that.”
After a break this week, Saturday Night Live UK is set to return on April 25th with Nicola Coughlan and Foo Fighters, followed by Aimee Lou Wood and Meek on May 2nd.
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