Jeff Goldblum tapped as season-two opener
Sky has booked Jeff Goldblum to host the season-two premiere of Saturday Night Live UK, airing Sept. 12 on Sky and featured live weekly. The announcement positions Goldblum — a veteran of the U.S. NBC sketch series, where he hosted in 1993 and 1997 — as the marquee guest for the launch episode. Production team Lorne Michaels and James Longman remain in their executive and lead producer roles, respectively.
Casting and writers' room changes
Returning for the second season are all 11 members of the inaugural ensemble: Hammed Animashaun, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young. Laura Claxton has been promoted to co-head writer alongside existing head writer Jonno Johnson. Liz Clare returns as director, Heather MacVean joins as costume designer, and Sinead Oldnall takes on the role of UK talent director.
Season structure and commission outlook
The second run will comprise six weekly episodes before taking a break and returning in early 2027, with sky.com confirming that additional episodes are slated beyond the initial six. Sky unscripted chief Philip Edgar-Jones, speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, said the broadcaster is "in this for the long run" and is "super proud of the team," reflecting on the social-media "naysayers" the show has worked to prove wrong. Last season's celebrity roster included Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Riz Ahmed, Jack Whitehall, Nicola Coughlan, Aimee Lou Wood, Hannah Waddingham, and Ncuti Gatwa.
Where the show sits commercially
Beyond the Sky broadcast, U.S. viewers were able to watch the inaugural run on Peacock, establishing the cross-Atlantic distribution footprint that the season-two debut will inherit. Fey's episode was watched on Sky by more than 220,000 people in Britain, though episode ratings trailed off after that, framing the audience scale Sky will look to consolidate rather than reset.
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