John Oliver Says ‘SNL’ U.K. Version “Sounds Like a Terrible Idea”

John Oliver thinks it’s “a terrible idea” to bring Saturday Night Live across the pond. 

The Last Week Tonight host shared disapproval of Comcast’s Sky and Lorne Michaels’ plans to introduce a British version of Saturday Night Live. next year during a Monday appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. 

“It sounds like a terrible idea,” Oliver admitted. “It just like sounds like a bad [idea].”

The comedian admitted that he doesn’t believe a British SNL will work because of the NBC sketch comedy show’s resemblance to a “cult.” 

“It just feels like Saturday Night Live is such a unique group — it’s a cult,” he joked. “I’m trying not to say that word. It’s a cult, and so I don’t know how you can impose that cult onto the U.K.” 

Seth Meyers, a longtime former castmember and writer on the live series, asked Oliver, “What is the most cult-like thing about SNL?” to which he responded by pointing out the show’s infamously long Tuesday workdays. 

“You know, just lots of it, what night is it that you stay up all night?” he asked Meyers, who cited Tuesday. “That’s ridiculous. I’m saying that’s the type of thing a cult leader would make you do. ‘We stay up all night on Tuesdays, by the way.’” 

Meyers somewhat agreed, noting “a lot of great sketch comedy has come out of places where people don’t stay up all night.” Oliver added, “I think that it’s been proven that SNL is the outlier — it doesn’t have to be dictated that you must not sleep on that day or the great leader will be irritated.”

Michaels joins the show’s British version as its creator and executive producer. His company, Broadway Video, and Universal Television Alternative Studio’s U.K. production team produce the show. The series is also commissioned by Philip Edgar-Jones, executive director of unscripted originals at Sky.

No official casting details have been announced, though the U.K.’s SNL will debut sometime next year in 2026.