SNL UK Ratings Slide 36% To 130,100 For Riz Ahmed Episode
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- Saturday Night Live UK drew 130,100 viewers at 10PM on Sky for its Riz Ahmed-hosted third episode, a 1.8% viewing share, down 36% from the prior week's 205,000 and 42% from the Tina Fey series debut of 226,000.
- SNL UK still beats both an average Sky late Saturday show and the US version airing on Sky Comedy, and the article notes an early post-premiere drop was always likely.
- Sky doesn't prioritize overnight ratings, the source stresses, preferring metrics that include repeat broadcasts and catch-up viewing — and last week's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor cold open has passed 2 million YouTube views, making it the most-watched SNL UK sketch to date on the Google-owned platform.
- Riz Ahmed's episode featured a Keir Starmer cold open with Olivia Colman and Peppa Pig, plus a Traitors parody mocking perceived unconscious racial bias, and an opening monologue where he joked, "for those of you who don't know who I am, clearly, neither do I."
- Overnight figures from BARB captured via overnights.tv don't capture the full audience, and commenters in the source point to the Easter bank holiday weekend as a likely drag on live viewership.
- The show's host is a key variable in week-to-week fluctuations, per the source, suggesting future ratings will track the recognition level of whoever Sky books next.
Why it matters: SNL UK lost roughly 96,000 overnight viewers between episodes two and three, but Sky's own framing — that catch-up and viral YouTube reach (2M+ views on one sketch) matter more than live numbers — suggests the drop is being treated as a normal settling curve rather than a crisis. Stakeholders: Sky (Comcast-owned), which is investing in original UK comedy and measuring success on digital footprint, not just BARB overnights.
