Tina Fey says hosting SNL UK was “so weird” and claims no British person would front first episode
Tina Fey has admitted that hosting the first episode of Saturday Night Live UK was “so weird”, but also claimed she got the job because no British person would front it.
SNL veteran Fey became the first-ever host of the UK branch of the show when it began broadcasting on Sky in March, setting in motion a so-far successful new vehicle for British comedy.
The stalwart was appearing as a guest on fellow SNL alumni Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show when the pair compared notes on what it was like to appear on the British counterpart sketch show.
After taking compliments from Fallon on her hosting duties, Fey said: “It was so fun. Like, it was so weird, because you go there, and the set – It’s like one of those dreams where you’re like, ‘Is this a room in my house I didn’t know was here?’”
She explained this strange sensation by adding: “It looked like SNL, but a little different, and everyone was, like, kind of the same jobs.”
Fallon agreed with this sentiment, because although he didn’t officially host the show, which has now been renewed for a second series, he made a brief cameo during the monologue while Nicola Coughlan was hosting.
However, for Fey’s part, it might have seemed a strange choice to some to have an American hosting the inaugural episode of a new British comedy format, but as it turned out, she initially agreed with this.
“They asked me to be the first host, and I was like, ‘No, no, I think it should really be a British person hosting’,” she said. “And they were like, ‘We agree. No British people will do it’.” The SNL veteran noted this was because “they weren’t sure it was going to work over there.”
Thankfully, now that the first series has been an undisputed success, “they have no trouble booking hosts,” she added, noting that everyone who works on the British version of the show is “hilarious” and “talented”.
Indeed, with the backing of the original SNL creator Lorne Michaels serving as the executive producer, he challenged the UK cast back in April to make the show “cooler” than the American version.
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