‘SNL UK’ chief isn’t worried about ratings: “We just need to keep being funny”
James Longman, lead producer on Saturday Night Live UK, has explained why he’s not losing sleep over linear television ratings for the show.
Over the weekend, the final episode of the first season, hosted by Ncuti Gatwa, of Saturday Night Live UK aired and gained just 86,420 viewers, the lowest of the series.
Previously, the lowest-rated episode was when Jack Whitehall took the reins as host, earning 120,000 viewers, but Saturday Night Live UK did bounce back from that low and for the penultimate episode, 197,000 people tuned in across the UK to see Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham on hosting duty.
Admittedly, the episode on May 16th was always going to be a struggle for linear viewers due to clashing with Eurovision, which still gained 5.2 million viewers despite being the lowest-viewed edition of the singing contest in 15 years.
In a new interview with The Ankler, Longman explained that due to the nature of how television is now consumed, Saturday Night Live UK has been a roaring success.
He proudly said, “We have over 200 million views on socials. We’re being shared, we’ve been spoken about. The way people watch TV now, and the way people react to things, it all kind of blends into one, and we are the sum of its parts.”
Longman also revealed he’s had “messages from dads and mums who say it’s the first show in years they’ve sat down as a family and watched”.
Looking ahead to the future, Longman is confident that Saturday Night Live UK is firmly on the right track, adding, “As far as I’m concerned, we are doing exactly what we should be doing, and the feedback from Sky is that they’re absolutely thrilled with us, and they’re supporting us. We’re ticking boxes, and we’re part of the conversation.”
Most importantly, Longman believes, “We just need to keep being funny.”
Although the first season of Saturday Night Live UK has come to an end, it has already been renewed for a second series, which will consist of 12 episodes. It will premiere later this year.
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