Hannah Waddingham was on hosting duties for Saturday Night Live UK‘s penultimate episode of the season, helping boost the show’s ratings.
The Sky comedy series, based on the iconic NBC original, was watched by a live audience of 197,200 on Saturday evening, according to official BARB figures supplied by overnights.tv.
The audience of nearly 200,000 was the show’s best performance in five weeks and the third-largest viewing figure of the season to date.
Only the season premiere, hosted by Tina Fey, and the Jamie Dornan-fronted second episode have performed better, generating ratings of 226,000 and 205,000, respectively.
The live viewing figures are only part of the picture. SNL UK‘s audience is more than tripling once catchup, streaming, and repeat viewing are captured.
| ‘SNL UK’ Episode | Overnight Rating | Seven-Day Rating | Seven-Day Rating Including Repeats |
| 1 | 226,000 | 528,000 | 784,000 |
| 2 | 205,000 | 507,200 | 642,000 |
| 3 | 130,100 | 430,600 | 631,000 |
| 4 | 120,000 | 371,700 | 503,000 |
| 5 | 129,970 | ||
| 6 | 143,730 | ||
| 7 | 197,200 |
The ratings, as well as sketches going viral online, have been enough to convince Sky to renew SNL UK for a second season this week.
Commenting on the renewal, SNL creator Lorne Michaels said: “I’m incredibly proud of our team and the show. It keeps getting better every week.”
Waddingham, known for her work in Ted Lasso, oversaw an episode in which Peter Serafinowicz played Nigel Farage, an ally of Donald Trump.
Making a cold open cameo depicting the Reform UK leader, Serafinowicz featured in a sketch set in 2046 when he is Prime Minister and the monarch is “King Trump.”
There is one episode left of SNL UK Season 1, which will be hosted next week by Ncuti Gatwa.
