Tina Fey / Wet Leg SNL UK By The Numbers - S1 E1

[Music] Ladies and gentlemen, Why do I have to find out by the river? Starring Mike Murray. This is. Besson L. Besson L. What's the law? By the numbers. For numbers. Numbers. Out of helium, jujured up for the surrounds God save Besson L. There's the opening high coup for you. I'm your host Mike Murray. And this is SNL by the numbers. The home of SNL stats. Tonight, we're covering Episode 1 of Saturday Night Live, UK with host Tina Fey and musical guest Wet Leg. This podcast as a presentation of latenighter.com with me is me mate, John Snyder from the Commonwealth. Oh, everybody. What's up, mate? I'm chuffed to be here. I'm absolutely knackered for doing off-week screen time, but it's fun. Glad we got you to do it. Yeah, it was. This was a blast. It's been a really fun week, Mike. Yeah, we talked last week, and this can be my opening headline, but first of all, last we're talking about, is this the most fun time to have an SNL podcast? And I think we agreed because of the season we're having, that the stats have been more fun than ever, the Ashford BDS storylines, the Rocky class, and now having a whole. Basically, it's an international spin-off of our favorite show. We get to cover more content and get more fans watching SNL, US, US fans, and Canadian fans, and fans everywhere watching UK and doing this. But I have to go back to our conversation last week. John and I did do a podcast for the Harry Styles SNL week, and I said, "What is the best case and worst case scenario?" It was one of my five questions on the show last week, for SNL UK, we were agreeing, growing the brand, the best case scenario for the show, and just having SNLB, current, and talked about all that stuff, compared to the NFL. And now I'm going back on my notes in my last week, I feel like I buried the lead, John, and watching SNL UK has really bolstered this note that I, sorry, I left out, but is pushing SNL US to be even better? What do you think about that? Seeing this show, and having not a competition, but a, someone else doing what you do, does inspire you to go back into the laboratory and go, "Oh, we could do that. We used to do that. This is a little different. I love that attitude. What do you think about that?" I'm sure there's a hint of that. I think they've done everything the same way for a very long time. So I doubt we would see those changes right now. But I think there's obviously the talk died down a lot in '51 about what the show looks like post-Lorn. And I do feel like, despite Lauren's involvement in this, this is a test case for what the show could look like without him there that it could, in fact, be run in very capable hands by another team. And that's the format can be one of the stars of the show. And it's not just the MacAvellian guy behind the curtain. He's always going to make those choices. And it's always the same. Lauren's brilliance, and he's made a lot of great choices over the years. But obviously, they're eventually will need to be a succession plan in place. And I do think that there's a couple of things that this SNL UK accomplishes. One is the ability to test case things for the future. And I think the second is that it does give Lauren, who was probably just a little bit involved in the casting of the show, an opportunity to do a complete reset later in his life. And just say, like, what does it look like for me if I wanted to build a show from scratch right now and not just do the constant churn in and out of cast members that we've been getting for 30 something years? Yeah, I mean, reset is definitely a word you could use because this cast feels, we can only have a screen time in a moment. It's like very cast forward. It's one episode of data, I know that, but we get a show to do today. But it's basically not read. It's had nothing to do with like the beginning is of SNL. It's very much a continuation of current SNL. And I did do a breakdowns on the segments because we talked about that last week. I just think that when you see someone do what you do, there's a natural inclination to improve yourself. If someone had a SNL podcast, that was doing what we do. And they would do something better than us. We would say, oh, we should improve that area. Am I wrong? Yeah, but they have a hand in it. So that's the only thing is like if there was some podcast, another SNL by the numbers out there, we would be like, what are they doing? What do they do right? What can we take from them? But they had a hand in everything leading up to and including this episode. I think what will be really interesting, and this is sort of what I said on Saturday when we did our after show, is what does episode two, episode three, episode four look like, now that the US people who were there probably are going home, you know, the adults are all out of the room. They're going to let the kids play and turn this into maybe an even more British show. So that's going to be interesting to see how that develops. I think that's a huge factor here. So there's a lot of really exciting things. I mean, Mike, how did you feel about the first episode of the show now that you watched it? I think this might be your first question tonight. I've already said how I feel about it. I want to know how you feel. That's what I can. Oh, it was just cool to be there, right? I mean, that's what I was about to ask you is, you know, we weren't there October 11th, 1975 for George Connellan and seeing the not ready for prime time players and being part of that moment. Just to feel like you're there from the start is cool for anything, whether you have an expansion team and a sport and you're like, I'm going to be a fan of that team. Well, like if you decide I'm going to be a fan of SNL UK, you get to meet these new people with everybody else across the pond. And it's just a fun, exciting thing. As far as the show, it did feel very much like SNL US. So if you like that show and listen to this podcast, I bet you do. Then I thought it was a good show. So there's a lot to talk about as far as the personalities in the cast, which I think there's, we have some really strong talent there. So I'm excited to talk about that screen time. But for me watching it, it was just kind of like embracing and basking in the history of this moment because whether this goes one series or it goes for, you know, 50 years on its own, nothing like being there from the start, John. Definitely. And also you got to think anyone who has been there for the first episode, it's like a decent chance that they're not, like, you know, with the show right now or maybe, you know, like on the planet, there's, it was 51 years ago. And if the average lifespan is like, I don't know what it is in North America, but like in the 90s, like, that means that like over half the world's population has probably turned over since the start of the series. So there is like, this is a completely different story. This is a completely new generation of people who get to see something for the first time. And I do think that that aspect is very cool. And what a time to do it, especially after celebrating 50 years of SNL. So it'd be like, this is the time now. And I think that's purposeful, by the way, because I think they focused on the 50th, they knew that this was a huge celebration. And I do wonder if, like, Lauren thinking about his legacy and what he's going to be leaving behind this Saturday Night Live. I think global expansion, despite all the iterations that we've talked about, we did release a great video that our producer Cameron created on Monday that I narrated about all the different adaptations of the show that they tried around the world. But this one feels like the most that the US has really had a hand in developing. And I have to wonder, like, if this is really successful, do they do it in Australia? Like, is that the next step there? What is the future of the show? So it would just continue on for generations and generations. It's really fascinating. Franchise, that's what it is. Global domination. Lauren Michaels is at the risk board moving cavalry into Camp Chalka, as we speak. Yes, for sure. Mike, I think we should also maybe do a touch of explaining what this podcast is because I know there's a lot of people who may be checking out our content the first time coming to us from the UK. I know we're on a little bit late here. We are doing this in prime time in North America, but we still are grateful whether you check us out tonight live or you watch us after the fact. But Mike is the SNL stats guru. He is the man with the stopwatch, the guy who knows all the data and screen time about the show. And for a few years now, he has been collecting an incredible amount of data about the show. And we get together on Wednesdays, typically, to do our buy the number of shows where we're going to break down the stats of the week. And it is a completely different way to look at Saturday Night Live than is it funny or is it not? It adds extra layers, extra components to watching these sketches that make things really interesting. I love getting to view the show from both lenses of like, "Hey, I'm going to analyze whether this sketch worked or not, and I'm also going to track why this cast member or how did these people end up dominating the show." And that's why we do this midweek to sort of extend the SNL conversation and we can get into which cast members are doing well, which ones aren't, because it is a show that does develop somewhat of a hierarchy and Mike is the perfect guy to track that. Yeah, thanks, John, for that reset. It is important because when you explain to somebody, you know, not only an SNL fan, but anybody, any person, any layperson who watches TV for the enjoyment of it, is that SNL is the closest television product to a sport that's not a sport. So if you follow the Premier League, you know, if you're a Wolves fan or a Chelsea fan or a Liverpool fan, you can kind of do the same thing here where there is rising and falling in the SNL hierarchy as John explains. So what I do is track all the empirical data, everything that you can measure, as John likes to say, this is just a record of events. So you watch SNL UK this week and you might be thinking, oh, I saw a lot of that person, but if you're curious of how much they were on screen, who was getting the big roles? Who got to say the first live from London at Saturday Night? Who's getting get recurring characters down the road and build an SNL resume and ultimately a legacy? Then this is the show for you because after all, you know, we look back at seasons of SNL US 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the road. Those things matter to us as fans because the show is always changing cast members. It's always growing and going to the next season. And we like to look back and see how people measure up down the road. So with one episode of data, let's take a look at the screen time for episode one of SNL UK. This is so exciting. All right, here we go. We got our first ever official host of Saturday Night Live UK with Tina Fey appearing in eight sketches and winning the night, which the host typically does with 21 minutes and 23 seconds of screen time. Mike, before I continue again to the cast, I just would love to know just to contextualize these numbers. Overall, runtime of the show is it around the same to what we get in the US or is that something we should consider when looking at these? Well, we can take a look at that right now. Actually, that's a great segue because I did do that data, John. We talked about this last week comparing season 51 to basically the past like decade of SNL and how it's changed. So one of my main story lines as the SNL statistician was to look at is this show going to format and feel the same as the US version. So I crunched those numbers for you, John. This is what it ended up being. It was 57 minutes and nine seconds of content versus 62 minutes, 44 seconds on average for season 51 of the American SNL. So it was about five minutes shorter. And I did see where they allocated time. The biggest difference you can notice is that we can update basically made up that five minutes. So the British weekend update was seven and a half minutes about versus an average weekend update hosted by Colin Joes to Michael Che, which was on this season average 12 16. So about five minutes there. And you can look at the screen and if you're watching with us on YouTube and see all the breakdown, but it was about five minutes shorter. But the breakdown other than we can update was almost identical. Anything sent out to you, John. Well, just I think that we got a longer monologue from a non-stand-up host this week because Tina was introducing the show. She wanted to make a spectacle of it, which in a good way. So yeah, I think this totally makes sense. It does just make you consider when we go back to the screen time that if we're going to compare apples to apples, so SNL UK as if it's taking place in the exact same structure as SNL US, that there should be potentially a slight boost across the board. However, in this case, you're saying that it would really go to Anya and Patty on update and likely maybe an additional correspondence, which there were two cut correspondence this week from the desk. So I would love I'm going to check next week, I guess, like what it this looks like and where they may be pulled from if it's more just like even across the board. But it is interesting just to consider that UK probably on average will be about five minutes shorter than us. And that's one of the things that we heard in the week was that the runtime was not set like where in the US SNL, the good nights will get cut, you know, short, like they'll go to the good nights and go right to the, you know, your local broadcast stations next programming at one or one a.m. Eastern time where this might have a little bit more flexibility. So I was expecting maybe this will be a little bit longer show, especially with the inexperience of doing a live show like this first time ever. But in this case, it was five minutes shorter. So, you know, I did the time difference cold open for this show was a minute, a minute less, a little bit. As John mentioned, Tina Faye's monologue was a little under two minutes longer than the average one this season. Live sketches, we got about two minutes less there. So it did make up more of the percentage for the UK SNL, a little bit more pre tapes. But yeah, about a five minute shorter update and a little bit less, for the music performances. But that's the most, you know, fluctuating aspect of SNL because it depends on the artist and the song choice. So this is important context, John, because we're about to pop back to the screen time. And you would think with five minutes less to work with whether that's sketch pre tapes or anything, we can update that it would be more competitive, right, John, to get time on the show. Yes. Now we also have less cast members. So that's another factor to consider versus US, which has five more. But yeah, I mean, I look, I do think that this is interesting. I think that adding extra UK data to this and looking back at it at the end of the season will be something important for us to do just because this first episode, I mean, we weren't going to get probably any cast members in the monologue. So that's something to think about because, you know, again, Tina had this big job of introducing the entire show. And then, you know, maybe purposefully giving us a shorter update, putting less pressure on Anya and Patti. And then also with the pre tapes, the other huge thing is like they had so much lead time for this episode compared to probably every other episode they're going to do that they could bank more pre tape time that I think that that is why you see the percentages you see here. So could end up being slightly an outlier, but I don't think that the runtime overall is the outlier here. And that's what's important when contextualizing these numbers. So let's jump back in to screen time here where we'll talk about who made it to the top of the rankings here for the cast. And that is George Foregur. So just to also talk about this for a second. So Jack Shepp, who is second here, very tight race, about a five second difference. So George Foregur's seven sketches, 14 minutes, 17 seconds. Jack Shepp, eight sketches, 14 minutes, and 12 seconds. These two clearly dominated the night. Did it in very different styles? And I could see when we did our MVP voting this week, a lot of votes went to George who would who came in second, a lot of votes went to Jack who ended up winning this. Now I think that this will be the major discussion point that we'll get to when I finish going through this list mic. But George very different style. George is somebody who opened the show, lead sketches, ended the show. Clearly was the face maybe of the first episode. Jack maybe had the biggest pop all over the show. So I test versus numbers, very fascinating race we have between the two of them there. Then we also have to throw Hamad Animashan in here who was in six sketches himself had a great leading role with that movie sketch eight minutes and 35 seconds for him. Those three were our cold open kings right there. Wet lag, our musical guest two segments for them six minutes and 36 seconds. Ayolade really a great utility role this episode six sketches for her five minutes 25 seconds. Emma CD had that huge sketch towards the end of the night four sketches for her five 19 then Celeste Dring had four sketches and five oh three she had a cut sketch. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Patty Young was the winning update anchor who was in four minutes in 32 seconds of screen time. Obviously a lot of that on update. He also had the role of Trump in the cold open for a very brief moment on the phone. So that is it was a one seconder Mike. Yeah one second voice over in the cold open. Yeah there you go. So that's the three segment appearances. We got the open we got update and then he made a pre tape it as well. We had Annabelle Marlow who was in a four sketches herself three 45 for for Larry Dean at three 45 as well. Then we got Al Nash three 32 seconds for sketches on young Magliano on updates and in a pre tape three 15 and then we're going to get to our guests that were there that evening and our writers so Brave Norton in the monologue two oh nine. Lorna Rose Treen she is a writer two sketches for her one minute 51 seconds and it does seem like SNL UK will be using their writers as extras very similar to the way that the original OG SNL did in those first five years mostly you used their writers in sketches. So we have Nicola Cochlan, one minute and 36 seconds for her, both in a monologue in that final sketch of the night, Chris Cantrell, also a writer to sketches for him, a minute and 20 seconds in a pre-tap. A couple of pre-tapes, Michael Sarah, in the monologue, 58 seconds. We have Celia A.B., who is a writer, who was in the internet HQ pre-tap, Rageont Page, former SNL host, 25 seconds for him, and popped in at the end of the night. Bella Hall, who is a writer, and also given the Don Pardo award for doing the opening, like the announcements for introducing the cast for the opening montage, really, really cool. So that, and she was in a pre-tap. And then Kate Butch, we also put on here. Kate Butch was among other dancers who appeared at the end of that hamnet sketch, 15 seconds for Kate, who is a UK drag race all-star. - Well done, John, how does it feel? This is like, you know, doing George Carlin, and I believe Preston's screen time in '75. - It's very cool. I don't have like a big afro to commemorate the occasion. Like I would have maybe in the '70s, but this is historic. Yeah, it's very exciting. And like there's so many great storylines to talk about. I mean, off the top, Mike, this George versus Jack Nang. And again, we're not always, you know, when we say this on this show, it's not hitting them against each other always, but it's literally just saying. I mean, these two were the dominant forces of the night. The first few episodes of Saturn and I live US, it was so obvious that they were pushing Chevy. Here we had a couple of people who were really put forth. - Yeah, funny enough you mentioned the premiere because in that screen time, I was looking at my data from the first episode of SNL, we had Chevy and John Balushi with identical screen time and very different usages, but they had a tie there. So we almost had a tie here at the top with George and Jack. And just for context, we talk about, we see this exact graphic on this show every week, looking at the episodes of SNL. And it might be difficult to parse sometimes, like is that good? Is that a good episode for that person? You know, they were on screen for two minutes or six minutes. And all my data I'm looking at right now, cast average screen time, including update anchors, four minutes eight seconds. That just, if you take every episode of Dunn, divided by every cast number, four minutes is about an average show. So for the first episode of this show, having two cast numbers at 14 minutes, and then third at eight, and then a bunch of fives and fours and threes, like 14 minutes, John. That has to be the first thing to talk about on the first UK by the number show because that is an insane number that we would see in the US version. It isn't a very insane number. And like if they had those extra five minutes, George had a cut update, a correspondence. I mean, he could have been pushing 16 or 17 minutes. Let's say it was two minutes as his update because if that gets on the show, I mean, that would be unbelievable. That, I mean, obviously, I think that would push him to the clear MVP over Jack at that point. But yeah, I mean, these numbers are fantastic. They, you know, this is what you do get when you get 11 performers as your cast, as you can really lean heavily on people's strengths more, and just not be afraid to use them. Like we don't have to force extra people into sketches or to take lines away from your stars. Like George, clearly for me, he was the one who I said, I felt like it was the MVP on Saturday because he has all the pressure in that cold open. You know, Jack had a role, Hamid had a role, but really all the focus is on him to start this franchise off on the right note. And he does that. Then he does the David Adenborough sketch, which is really the first live sketch that isn't the cold open, right? You have the monologue and then you have the pre-taped, but he's kicking that off too. And then he gets his own segment at the end of the night with his own title card, 45 seconds with a George for acres. And I believe Mike, that was longer than 45 seconds. It was about an over a little more minute. Include the title cards. Yeah, which is interesting. So like, I think they knew what they had in him where they were like, hey, this is the star for this first episode. He is the most comfortable on screen. He fits the role of the prime minister. He has a unique voice. He's going to be the one that's going to just, you know, maybe remind people of older British comedians and invite people into the show and encourage them to want to stick around and watch George in the future. And then Jack obviously has that just the utility status where they're just putting him and everything. So yeah, it was a minute 44. So almost a minute 45 seconds, a George for acres. And for comparison, that's what we're going to be doing tonight, you know, often is comparing this version of SNL to the version we've been watching for 51 seasons is that the storyline almost weekly has been Ashapodilla, Domain the Show, especially as a future player. She holds the current record in 51 for most screen time in an episode. That was the Sabrina Carpenter week, week three number three, 13 minutes 45 seconds. So the best Ashapodilla episode in terms of screen time was just shy of 14 minutes. SNL UK had two cast members get over 14 minutes. Yes, now the Ashley number becomes even more impressive when you take into account that there were 17 cast members when she did that. So of course. Yeah, it gets really, really interesting. We haven't seen a cast of 11 in a very long time. So I can't wait to see how these two at the top continue to develop. And I'm also very interested in some of the people who were about average, right? You said like, you know, we're looking at about, you know, sort of that Larry Dean and upmark of like people who had like a pretty good night. I can't wait to see who feels now that like, all right, I got my feet wet. Now I really want to show this show, this audience what I can do and try and get up there with the Hamids, with the Jax, with the George's. For sure, I mean, this is like, I get, I mentioned a top so cast forward that I think that someone like, I guess we don't know how patty and ony will be used, but Larry Dean, Alan Nash, I feel like it easily be in the 10 minute mark this week. Like that's so seeable for me. Alan Nash got the first update segment, which is a huge, you know, trophy on the wall for him. And he was second to last. He was, you know, last among the non-update cast members. And he was the only cast member that I knew going in because I follow him and like his stuff. So I was excited to see him and see him do a Captain Bird's Eye as the very first SNL UK correspondent, you know, going back to the SNL 75 days. Didn't only have a desk piece, but we had Lorraine Newman, you know, outside the Blaine Hotel. But he was at 332 with four appearances. That's like kind of what we see week to week for most cast members. He's at the bottom. And Larry Dean, Annabelle Marlow, 345, and Celestrign having a lead sketch with the shy baby and being in the, in the, in the five minute mark. This is, you know, one week of data. But I think that with 11 cast members, as we're talking about, this will be kind of anyone's show. But I feel like George, Hamad and Jack, even with one episode, seem like the top dogs of this cast. And Mike, we've done this experiment before of when there is a male host, do like which women dominate versus the female host and the men dominating. And I'm curious, like this was like a very male, heavy week with Tina being there. So you were going to get roles where like if she is husband and wife or, or if she is like a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a movie star, like you have her and Jack in the Hamad sketch, like I wonder with Jamie Dornan coming in with Rizah Med coming in. Those are the only announced hosts we have right now. If that opens up an avenue for us to get to know the women on the show a little bit more, Tina is always like an advocate for women and punching up, you know, women's jokes and women's sketches. So I'm not surprised. We got someone like Emma C.D. really putting her voice on the show. But as I mentioned, Celeste had a sketch that got cut. She obviously had a big role in the shy baby sketch. But I'm really curious to see like what her voice is on this show. I think the only two that I'm walking away with from this first episode, really not knowing what their comedy brand is. Are Celeste and Annabelle, who I think seem to be really interesting and talented, but I just don't, I don't know what they are yet. Is that how you feel or is there anyone else that's like a question mark right now through Wee Kwan? Celeste Annabelle for sure. I think Annabelle was the toughest for me to identify sometimes coming in this brand new where Larry Dean, he played Freddie Mercury in the Attenborough sketch and he's the, you know, the Scottish cast member. I thought he had a pretty good pop in the internet headquarters pre-tap and then he was, you know, hamnet in that sketch. So I feel like I can expect, and I think he comes from a stand-up background. He seems like he has a brand going in where, yeah, I feel like the same way. But Celeste Annabelle. And then with Emma, I thought she popped the most in the skincare. commercial advertisement too well and then I was glad to see there was a female lead sketch you mentioned Jamie Dornin coming in I've done data on this where when there's like a hot guy host the women really pop off in the stats we saw An episode we glen powell this season where Chloe Feynman had her biggest green time of her career by far and her previous best was years ago in the first season of the SNN during the reggae John page episode who had a cameo in this episode Where Chloe Feynman's previous high was in that that show Yeah, I completely agree and that's why I think week number two may look really different than week number one One of the other things that is totally worth mentioning from week number one is that you know diversity for SNL US has always been a big issue In SNL UK, you know they they I wouldn't say that they Perfected an issue here with the cast, you know that they put together however There are some diverse performers here and of course there's you know different comedy voices depending on where in the UK These people are from but I do want to point out like we had a really cool mix in week number one of diverse voices And that's what I always like to say on this show is like when you have diverse cast members You get interesting comedic ideas that are a little bit different from each other and like in the top five We got Hamad we got Ayolade who are like both there and then like Jack being an out gay performer who really like MVP like all over It's not Completely unprecedented. Obviously we just had Bowen who was a pretty big star of his era in the US But it is very cool when you're starting something from scratch If you are not like in the majority there's a chance that you get pushed down And I think what we had here was the closest thing that I like to think SNL is which is a meritocracy that no matter who you are If you produce the best work you're gonna get on the show and that was really cool this week Yeah, I also wanted to say about Hamad because I thought that he had the strongest presence that like Grab me early and when I saw him have two Basically back-to-back the boovies go to the films and internet HQ To see like you mentioned George Foregars with the cold open and then the Attenborough Dinner was like wow this guy has such screen presence So we talked about that with Bowen Yang we talked about that with you know, essentially strong like people of the you know Past decade of SNL and so to see somebody like that right away have those moments I was like oh, I want to see more from this guy. I just found out who he was you know 15 minutes earlier And didn't feel like this is somebody that I see on American SNL every week I don't know maybe it's just because He was in the cold open so I got introduced early to him But I like seeing that right away that it wasn't the host that was really the sketch leader It was a Casember Yeah, and he really has like a big presence about him and I think to You know obviously Kenan's been on the American version for 23 years and like you know It must have been so weird for Lauren to watch an episode of Saturday Night Live that doesn't have Kenan in it I mean, I know he missed one episode in 46 to go film the sitcom, but still You know, and it's and it is interesting to think about like you know how Lauren has leaned on Kenan for a very long time as being like the main Black voice on the show for you know a couple of decades now and I like I thought how med was fantastic in the roles that he was doing and he really did pop and like that's the key to someone who could end up being the star We'll talk later about the power rankings and how we look at them throughout as the season develops But he's not out of contention even if we had you know just slightly better weeks from George and Jack He's certainly someone who could end up being at the top as well Definitely, I think it's it's such a clean slate I'm glad you mentioned Kenan because when you have a vet like that we've been tracking that for so long of course on this program but How someone who's such a veteran compares to rookies? We saw so many rookie debuts this season in 51 with Veronica cam Ben Jeremy Tommy And still having Jane and Ashley in the future to cast So we thought we'd take a look as we do on every season of SNL premiere looking at How the debuts measure up so we mentioned having the 14 minutes from Jack and George is like a crazy debut We've been talking about James Austin Johnson and 47 for four years now being at the 10 minute mark So John what do you think take a look at some of the debuts in SNL history going back 30 years? Yeah, are we able to sort them by the time is that possible for sure? I think that that is a great way to take a look at it from what we have so my my cast compiled a lot of the first episode screen time For a lot of cast members throughout the years and I just want to say like to put out the caveat SNL has had Mostly a consistent in and out turnover Since 1985 where they haven't like done a complete just like hey, let's rip apart and have a new cast So this cast is probably the closest comparison like two season 11 in a way of like hey We're just gonna try and start fresh now that season notoriously was considered an all-time ad season and there was even a documentary last year About why it didn't work with the mix of cast members that were put together So I don't wish that upon any of these cast members but in SNL US there's always a rookie veteran presence of you have to wait your turn to really make a pop on the show And then sometimes every now and then a cast member will sneak into that and find their way to having a really big night Like James Austin Johnson did in season 47 where he had over 10 minutes of screen time Which was so impressive Mike just getting together with you that week and being like what is this that we are watching? Yeah, that was crazy because in a similar way of course This is all rookies this week in snl uk that James Austin Johnson was leading the cold open So it was the first person we saw when the show started in 47 So I also threw in the original cast because why not it's fun. It's comparing you know apples to oranges But it's also two premieres of snl So I you you will see like you know Dan acroid in there at over five minutes and gilder radon or about five minutes Just for fun, but looking at these you know right away as you've been saying tonight We see the top four of all the of all these data points We see three of them offer mess in l uk that's George jack and himad so You know, but I highlighted in blue the snl uk cast and I highlighted in yellow the current 51 cast when they were rookies So you're going to see keen and Thompson from 2003 at five minutes seven seconds about the same as Celeste Dring this week You're going to see Sarah Sherman at 451 also in 47 Uh some or two patty young on update this week in snl uk So going on this list is there any cast member that you can think of that you're curious How they might compare to an snl us cast member Well, I think larry gene is an interesting one you brought him up earlier Which you sort of like we we created like a larry Dean mark there of like hey this is like a you know three 45 like him and Annabelle This is like a decent uh weak and I think he has a unique voice in this cast um, you know that is a little bit different from everyone else around him And I find it so fascinating that he's right next to Tim Robinson because You know Tim is a guy where everyone knows him a lot for the post show things that he did But he also came into the show is like somebody who was having a unique voice Kind of like trying to fill that will forteish role of being at the end of the show when having that weird sketch And I just wonder with larry Dean being the only Scottish cast member If there is a like hey, he's gonna pop in a uniquely funny way because he's scottish versus English And there is something there that of course like when we have british correspondence on that I'm certainly going to ask them about Yeah, as I mentioned about larry Dean. He's the one that seemed to pop for me as having his own edge Which I like Tim Robinson is exactly that mold Is somebody that like might be kind of on an island in the cast back in um 2012 when Tim Robinson was there Of course, he was a writer and we know what his style is in hindsight But Tim Robinson was like okay, this guy stands out among the rest So even with screen time very similar Tim Robinson made five appearances at 339 versus larry Dean's four appearances at 345 But I think that's a decent comparison of somebody that comes in with their own brand There's uh, you know something to be said about if you come in with that brand You can be successful With the show without the show without a brand you might come into SNL and become part of the machine Which can be great Thing of keen and Thompson coming from all that the guide you know lives and breeds sketch comedy Is built for SNL someone like Sarah Sherman came in with a brand and we've seen her Becompared the machine and have great numbers But sort of lose that so there's two sides of that coin and I'm interested to see what the happens with Larry Dean, but going to Anya, who was the lowest screen time getter of the British cast at 315, just as a comparison, look at how many are below her. Like there's just a long list, John, all the way to Luke Null, a one-season wonder who was shut out of his premiere and Amy Polar, one of the greats of SNL, who had one appearance for four seconds that you could you could barely see here in that sketch. Right, but you know that is a huge asterisk there with that being the 9/11 show and if that doesn't happen, you know, do we get more Amy in that episode? But yeah, clearly, I mean this is what you get when you get a complete reset and an 11 person cast. Is you're not gonna get these type of numbers where people are gonna appear for under a minute and you know we don't have to come into episode one of series one of the UK and say danger watch for anybody because that wasn't we didn't get that under a minute. I mean if I if I would turn on the show on Saturday night and someone was getting under a minute of screen time given the circumstances, I would think that that's an issue. I mean I would be like, oh, this is one to watch here. So I think it's way too early for any of that. I like to ask you just for some of our listeners, American and abroad, about season 11. You mentioned season 11, so can you give the listeners just kind of an idea of what that was like because the context for all stats matters as stat people it's easy to manipulate. So we do the power ranking and kind of you know, level set the stats. But when we see that hierarchy of you're a rookie coming in with 15 people, 20 people, that competition is way different than coming in fresh with all your coworkers are all in the same level. So talk about season 11 for people who might not have seen that at all. Yeah, sure. So season 11 is the season where Lauren Michaels returns to the show. So he was there for five years. He leaves the show. It had a different producer for five years. Lauren started a show called the new show, which was pre taped to a lot of the shows were taped in SNL studios and over in New York and it didn't really work so well. And it had a lot of the voices that people knew already. He decided, hey, let's start over from scratch. Let's build a new cast in 1985 and it was his opportunity to build a new SNL. And that SNL had essentially nine main cast members to it. So we got Joan Q. Zach, Robert Downey Jr., Nora Dunn, Anthony Michael Hall, John Loveitts, Dennis Miller, Randy Quaid, Terry Sweeney, and Deneetra Vance. There were some feature players that were thrown in the mix as well like Damien Williams had a pretty big role early on. Eventually you're gonna get a Whitney Brown and Don Novello as a writer would come in and down the battalion a little bit and Al Franken. But these were those were the main cast members. And I believe this the beginning of season 11 does definitely click. But what's interesting is it's like a really like big test of a lot of comedic voices coming together. And I think what Lauren did was like, hey, like he didn't know how the chemistry was gonna work. And he sort of just shoved like people from way different backgrounds, different comedic stylings and just like hope it work. Like imagine you're cooking something and you're like just gonna open up your cabinets and be like, ah, that looks good. All right, let's throw that ingredients in the pot. Like that's what it is. And it just like didn't fully fit well to the point where he's gonna do, he's gonna keep just three cast members and then do a like kind of one of the biggest resets ever the following year and bring in season performers with chemistry and a little bit of an older cast. And again, I think that that season 11 cast is the closest that we like model that we have to what we have here in the UK where let's find performers and like hope it all works together. And I think that that is what we got here too much larger success than maybe what we did get over 40 years ago. Yeah, we're hoping for no fires at the end of the season. Correct. Yes. Yeah, it was a pretty big reality show that whole season. Yeah, and that was I think it's an important chapter as an SNL fan to go back and see at least you know, some highlights of that season to see on the success of like John Love, it's in Oregon and who really ushered in that next cast. We talk about Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo with the Dominion cast about like really going to keeping the show afloat without lawnmikers. So to come back and have season 11 and go all new, it really was a reset button for the show. Yeah, and there's one other thing that I definitely think if you are if you want to get super nerdy with this as you're listening along and want to go back and watch that episode at some point this week, there are some interesting comparisons like you have Randy Quaid in that first episode who really does establish himself and like pops is potentially being like sort of like this like Dan Acroid style star. I mean, he's going to play like John F Kennedy in that first episode. He's going to play the president Ronald Regan at the time in that episode and he sort of has the George Foreaker's role in a way where he's going to be really all over the show. He's going to be in seven sketches and be kind of that star of that first week. And then you know, if I was going to make a jackship like I sort of think that's Love It's who sort of finds his way in a bunch of things. He was in eight sketches that week as well and only Will Ferrell and John Love It's out of everyone in the history of Saturn and alive have been in eight sketches in their SNL debut and now we have jackship. So I think that that trio is fascinating. We put out a graphic about that today. And one more fun comparison, Mike, is that that show ends with a just pretty much solo piece from Denise Revance as her Cabrini green Jackson character holding up a coloring book and talking about it straight to camera as we get sort of a 45 seconds with Denise Revance. They are similar to the way that we got George's piece at the end of the show. Yeah, that's a great stat about the eight appearances. I feel like I got like a little bit of an ethnical hall energy watching season 11 today for the youth is like jackship brings today's youth to the show where you know it's not always about age might be about like types of roles and appearance like we talk about James Austin Johnson a lot like he's able to play the elder roles despite his age and you know there's different characters like Marcel Hernandez or Pete Davidson that even the Calamoonies or Mikey Day is played young but really Marcelo and Pete or Eddie Murphy back in the day just have the youth that can translate to roles but also identify with for the viewers. So I really like that about jackship this week but also the cast as a whole felt younger it's not always a complaint of mine because I really love Mikey Joost Che Kinen and their great stalwarts of the show who had been there and produced so well but I mentioned last week I think to you John that they represent four of the oldest cast members in SNL history where this cast felt young it felt fresh it felt not ready for prime time players did you feel that at all watching that it felt like this might be the kind of like youthful take over that 75 was going for. I really do I mean I'm just gonna take a look there was a great guardian article that came out right the like a week before the premiere of SNL UK and they did have the ages of every one of these performers so like when you talk next Mike I'll do some quick math on it but we're looking at a cast that's mostly late 20s early 30s I would say and I think that does help like there is a danger in going too young I think that season 11 cast did have some people in their like early 20s even like you think about Robert Downey Jr. like that's something that I don't know that the cat like that they would want to go for now the youngest cast member we got Jack Shepp at 26 years old but clearly they felt like hey this is a star we're gonna lean on him George is 35 years old I'm trying to see who the oldest one is in this cast right now I think we got I thought I saw 36 somewhere oh yeah it's the last 36 so it really ranging from 26 to 36 in this cast feels like the right way to go it almost feels like to make that sports comparison Mike peak athletic performance so it takes place in your late 20s early 30s and I wonder if we just got like the highest energy most confidence in that time yeah I just did a quick number crunching on the current SNL US cast which is an average of just right at 35 years so going from Cam Patterson and Jane Wickline the younger side 26 all up to a Mikey who's about to turn 46 or he just did and Jay Joston Keenan all in their 40s so you know we see the younger crop like even a Ben Marshall who's the younger end is 31 almost so overall these cast members are you know average about 35 and you're telling me that like you know these are averaging about late 20s yeah just a quick a quick add together average of 31 so a few like it is a little bit of a difference when you get that now I can't wait to see if the show ends up being really successful of if they grow together or we get some turnover but overall I think this was the right path to go and that that would definitely be something I would ask James Longman in the future if we get at an opportunity to speak to him again. It was like, were you looking for performers of a specific age? - Yeah, let's look at the original cast. 'Cause I mean, we know that original seven, not including O'Donohue and George Coe, and they were averaging at 28 years old. People forget that Dan Akurai was freshly 23 in 1975. And he had a mustache, he played some of the dad roles, occasionally he was known for that. But like, you know, Gilda 29, Lorraine 23, Jane 28, Volushi 26, Akurai 23, Chevy 32, and Garrett was the old guy in the cast, it almost 39 years old, and 75. - Right, and that, you know what's interesting also, is that Lauren, I believe, was like 31, or something like that when the show premiered. So he had that older brother, camp counselor style thing with the cast, where he was still of their generation, and they looked to him as being their leader. And I kind of wonder if that's what they're going for with Jane's Longman, where he is older than this cast, but he's not that much older that there is, like such a difference, where sometimes we hear word that like, Lauren loves learning from new cast members now to understand what people find funny. - Yeah, well that's a big thing too, right? Is Taborodam head coaches or managers, and you know, American and British football, is having someone who can be a locker room guy, or someone who's been there before, has won championships or cups, and can really lead the pack, because you get a show runner in there who might have the credits under his belts, who's been doing it for 35 years, like that might be the guy to start the show. Well, on the other hand, it might be a good thing to be like, well, have this person feel like they're part of something from the start, which was Lauren Michaels. I mean, looking back how young he was, especially seeing him portrayed in the Saturday Night movie, is like he was, as I mentioned, the ages of the cast members, younger than Garrett by seven years, and really in the mix there. So having the finger on the pulse is huge, I think. Did you see the picture of Longman at the After Party after the first episode? No, I didn't tell us about it. Oh, there's a great picture online that someone put in their story of him standing on one of the tables talking to like a bunch of people at the party. I think that was from the first After Party that they did on Saturday. I mean, that's the thing, it's like, when you're building this machine, and you're gonna put them there at the top, you gotta have the right person. And I saw there was some great pictures and people talking about him, like mentioning, like our captain, our leader, him and his relationship to this cast will be so crucial for them moving forward that when you ask me at the top of the show of like what can SNL US learn from SNL UK? Well, this is something to think about for the future of the show. We're gonna let the listeners read between the lines of that comment, John. For sure. All right, should we do five questions? Let's do it. All right, question one, do you feel, especially you, John, covering this show for so long and watching every episode, all 1,000 episodes of SNL, now seeing SNL UK won. Do you feel that it met expectations? Did it exceed them? And how do you feel about the reactions that you've seen as a commentator? I feel like it exceeded expectations. There were so many things that could have gone wrong this week. I don't think any of them did. I saw, you know, like I know that there's other great people and other publications that talk about the show. I saw like an absolutely dreadful deadline article with someone who was reviewing the show, who clearly was watching the show wanting to rip apart the cast. But that was an outlier. I was doing my best to ingrain myself in British media and to see like what they have been saying about this show. And the coolest thing is when you can prove somebody wrong and I'm not saying that everyone wanted this to fail, but there was a huge apprehension from our friends in the UK about this show succeeding. How are you going to take an American product and put it over here and make it feel British and make it feel like our own, while staying genuine to the format? I thought it was perfect. I can lie. I loved every minute of it. And were you hesitant going in? Like did you think like, okay, this might not be great, but we're going to follow through or were you thinking like, no, this is going to be good. I feel like episode one, they're ready, Tina's there. It's going to be a good show. I thought it was going to be good. I don't know. It was probably better than I thought it would be. I just, you know, SNL's so different now. Somebody asked in the comments on the video we put out on Monday about like, now that you've gone through all the other iterations of the show and talked about them, do you feel like SNL UK will also not succeed because none of the other formats, except for South Korea, really have found a path. And I think that the world is so different in the way that they consume media. And it's so ironic because Saturday Night Live is one of the last great things on linear television. But the fact that so many people can watch this show on their phones now has changed the way that they will watch SNL UK and the reason why it will succeed. So I'm sure Sky would love if everyone was watching this on Sky One, but the fact that it is available on their streaming service that they have licensed it out to other streaming services and that they are posting at least some of the sketches online, probably helps. - Then I'm bringing you to question two, what is your take on SNL UK's release strategy with them only posting some sketches to YouTube releasing on peacock at 9 p.m. on Sundays, et cetera, because we do a lot of sports comparisons in the show, mostly American sports, but there is an issue a lot of times with the MLB for baseball, some is for hockey in the NHL with blackouts and local providers, you know, basically barring you from watching games out of network. And now here we are in North America, John in Canada, me in the US, wanting to watch the show, wanting to patronize it and support it, and we don't get that network. So you can either illegally find it, you can wait for it on peacock, you can do whatever you have to do it, but we want to support the show, either with our wallets or with our eyeballs. So what is your take on the strategy of producing the show for a medium either on television or the internet? Well, I get what they're doing with not putting all the sketches online. I can't say I don't hate it, and I do think there are much greater long-term benefits in putting all of the sketches online than the short-term benefits of having people sign up for Sky to watch the show as it is, you know, where it's originally intended. I just think that the buzz around the show and people sending sketches to each other in today's day and age is going to be the reason why the show is successful. So I would hope that the show may reconsider not putting all their sketches online, and just because they put all the sketches online, doesn't mean that people won't support the network. NBC makes a lot of money on SNL for people not just watching the show. They have SNL products in their stores. They advertise their cast members, they put them in projects, they have like great media opportunities, they bring in, I mean, I saw that Sky is doing something with eBay, but like NBC has done a ton of product placement with T-Mobile, they do these behind the scenes things over here. There's a lot of ways to bring in revenue. I think this show needs attention. It had naturally a ton of attention, Mike, in this first week with Tina being there. The attention is surely going to die down a little bit with Jamie Dornan and then Riz Ahmed and the double headers we're about to get with US and UK at the same night. So I would do everything I could to get this show out there. 100%, I am a full free trade forward thinking person. Quick story, I remember being on my honeymoon in Hawaii, have to watch the Patriots. I'm obviously in a different time zone. I pay for NFL package, like I get every game on my phone, whatever. But since I'm from Boston, when I was in Hawaii, they would not let me watch the game because it knew I was from Boston. And I'm like, why? I do my paying all this money and I can't watch my own game because it only shows me the local CBS affiliate games, which I could watch on Hawaiian TV. So with that being said, I had to illegally find a Patriot stream on Reddit and I watched it on the beach and had a great time. They beat the Jets by like 43 points. It was a great time. But this on my. We're not encouraging anyone to find that on illegal way. Not at all. This anecdote though is to illustrate that people who have the enthusiasm like I do for the Newland Patriots will find a way to watch it and they want to support it. I actually did sign up for some random thing and I paid like a trial fee to watch the Patriots legally and it didn't work because it's still like whatever the time zone I was in the location. So I am only suggesting, I'm not saying anyone do anything illegal, but for the success of SNL UK at least bring us in because if people want to watch live, it's actually beneficial in this case because we're over in the States or Canada where it's earlier in the evening, it's not we're trying to watch it 3am that that avenue to do that could be maybe streamlined because I would definitely sign up for that and watch it earlier in the evening on a Saturday rather than waiting to Sunday night to watch it on peacock. That's all I'm saying. Yes. And then just be clear, there's two things. One is them deciding hey we're only going to put up four to five sketches of the episode and everything else you got to watch in full in the show. That's something like I could wrap my head around because it's a new show I get it you're trying to just confirm to the networks to the advertisers that we have this many people watching it maybe that YouTube numbers don't play in the same way to their records. The 9pm on Sunday, what is it 27 to 28 hours later release for most of the American audience is aggrigious and we see peacock do a lot of great things for us here so I just want to say you appreciate it but like I love it. This is a crazy, crazy decision. I don't understand it. I would love to be explained it one day as to why they're doing a 9 o'clock release. I'm in Canada and I have crave and it was out at 2.30 in the afternoon this past Sunday and we have a channel here called CTV Comedy that aired the show at 10pm on Saturday which was only 4 hours after the UK got it live. So in Canada there are multiple ways to watch this show quicker than the American audience and the American audience is crucial to this show succeeding. Maybe the birds don't want to hear that but this SNL is a global sport. You want this attention on you. Don't do anything to compromise it. That was going to be the next point is we don't want this show as an L.U.K. to be siloed as a British comedy. It is inherently a show produced in four Britons. That's great. I support it but we want it to be international because think about the stars, think about the cast of the show and their future opportunities and the future success of the show would be it would be it would be who of them to have that be included with the live experience because for me SNL is a live sport. So I love the people watching on YouTube and then go to us after and follow up the podcast and social media and support SNL but I feel like the live aspect is crucial to the success for everyone whether you're in Asia, Africa or North America. So if you're in Britain and you're watching it great you can probably watch SNL live really late for you and we support that. So I would imagine that eventually there has to be some agreement that we can watch SNL U.K. with their British audience not after. Agreed. Question three. Which sketches? We talked about some of them tonight. Some SNL U.K. stood out to you as the ones or stood out as the ones people are talking the most about and why. What do you think about the actual selections because you mentioned they had a really long runway to pick the sketches where this week they won't because they're on the SNL schedule. Yeah, if you look, I've heard more moments than specific sketches. There was a lot of good moments that I think you think of the Hamed turn in the hot streak sketch that I think was something everyone's been talking about because it's just something you can't see in the U.S. I think that was the sketch probably of the night for me. Of course everyone's talking about Jack Shepp as Princess Dye. That was more of a, you know, impression parade. But yeah, I wouldn't say that there was like any sketch that would be like, hey, this was an all-time sketch. I think maybe we're going to get that. Just for me, I feel like there's just more really big moments that popped and everything was good. I didn't love like, obviously people know I don't love like dancing at the end of sketches on it like it necessarily. So like maybe I would have cut a little bit of that in some sense. But I didn't not enjoy anything. Well, that's good. As far as sketches, like, is there one that you think that because I do want the show to be its own and to live and have its own DNA and not be an American ripoff. It should be American inspired for the institution, but be British inherently. Is there one that you think would play to your Canadian American friends the best? I, well, okay, so I was, I thought you were going to ask me something else. So I think the, I think the hot streak probably would play the best just because it's just a movie. Yeah, movies go to the film. Okay. Yeah, movies go to the film to the Hamad sketch. I think that one probably would play the best because there's just such a turn on it that I could see like any of my casual like high school friends like watching that and just being like, holy shit, it's like really funny. I think that the, what the like what kind of Irish is your granddad, the 45 seconds with George forrikers, that one like was so uniquely SNL UK that I think would be intriguing for anyone who maybe is out on SNL US for a while and wants to go back and see the show and see like a different voice and tone. That felt like something we would not yet. And just side question during five questions. Do you have experience? Are you a fan of any British comedies? I wouldn't say no. I really don't have a lot of experience with British comedies. I'd say that I have a lot of experience with like British reality shows. So for me, like I'm a big fan of like Peep Show. Like I love that show. British office. Of course, I've seen a bunch of times. I feel like I've experienced a lot of it through Osmosis and like a lot of Monty Python has made its way to me. So I feel like I grasp that. But I don't, I think I'm going to learn a lot from this show, which is should be part of the goal here. I mean, as in L.U.S. I see this every weekend from our listeners all around the world who are just learning about American pop culture and American political culture from the show that we should absolutely have the same experience by watching SNL UK. And honestly, I think that excites me the most is, I mean, I'm like 100% Irish background. And so like when Irish humor is infused into American SNL, I get a chuckle out of it and it kind of Irish is your granddad. He's from Clark. So Southern Irish on the coast. But so yeah, that was funny and I see Nick Lecogland from dairy girls. But it's when we see, oh, so when a British audience sees American politics, sports, movies, culture in SNL reflected in lampoon that way, then it can kind of bring you together. So I know there's so much of the British politics and lifestyle that I have no awareness of. So seeing that is fun for me. Question number four, what was your favorite difference you've seen over 1,000 episodes of SNL and now one of UK between the shows because we got one sample size, looked at the stats. But as a fan, as a viewer, what was your favorite difference between the shows? No doubt it was Tina introducing wet leg coming out of that shy baby sketch and saying, like turn around to the camera, I compared it to like Bono grabbing the camera that won't like a famous SNL musical performance of like, you know, like having some fun with it and just being like, ladies and gentlemen, like, I was so, that was so cool to me. There is like a really fun live experience of watching this show of they have less commercial breaks. I think the commercial breaks are slightly longer, but they have less commercial breaks where when I was watching the show live, I was like, whoa, is this like a jam packed segment of going from cold open to monologue to pre-taped to sketch and then like like I forget the whole exact run order, but it was just like it felt like there was a lot of things happening here and logistically I'm so curious what the experience would be like being in the audience there, hopefully I get to have that one day. I've just seen them just go back to back to back. Like we know in SNL US, we're gonna do a most sketch, pre-taped sketch. Here we really get to play with it. And famously they show the great Mary Ellen Matthews photo card and then it goes into the hosting Ladies and Gentlemen musical guests. So I love that you said that because that was so cool for me that was the spit up my coffee when I wasn't drinking any moment of the show was Tina Fey in costume leaving the shy baby sketch walking over doing it we got music right now like there wasn't okay here's like the I don't want to call it a lull but it is like the lull in the energy of the comedy of SNL is when you do commercial music commercial update commercial like that is the extra point kickoff of American football. There was a like SNL the Highwire Act that I think you only really fully understand if you're in the studio to watch it where you see the moving sets everyone running around like it is it's such a miracle the show gets pretty crazy. Absolutely crazy. So even sometimes like it's trivial to break it down in the way in certain ways because it's just so cool that it it happened but it may be even cooler in the UK given the circumstances. And just for fun can we talk about the swearing because I don't think it's a a necessary crutch or should be used as a crutch to use curse words in comedy to get a laugh I know there's a lot of stand-up comedians that have opinions about that very strongly I'm not a stand-up comedian or have an opinion in that way but I do like the leeway I'll say that as far as differences is to be able to strategically place an f-bomb which Tina Fey did in her monologue that was fully intentional is to say why are you hosting SNL as an American SNL UK as an American and not a Brit and say because none of you fuckers would do it like that was right now my strategic f-bomb of the podcast so I like that it was treated that way because it's something you cannot do on American SNL and you will never be able to do SNL so what do you think about that and there was you know a different word use in the Shakespeare sketch that you could never say on American SNL so that going in going forward do you think that that will be something that is just stands out among the differences between the two shows for sure I think every SNL US cast member that would watch this episode would have been so jealous like all the writers too of them being like we can do this and I agree I don't want every sketch based around the fact that they could go there but I think that what was cool is that if you have ever had the experience of going to see an SNL cast member, former or current at a stand-up show or in something else like I sometimes I go to just for laughs like I'll see some people and I get to see them express themselves in ways that they can't on NBC it is like freeing in a way that allows them not to box themselves into certain comedy and I felt like the movies movies sketch was one that doesn't exist without him swearing frankly because it just doesn't work as hard or maybe they put it on and it just like doesn't hit the same way but I would vouch that they're take advantage of everything you have if you have this opportunity to do it just go for it. Yeah I call it like an arrow in the quiver like you don't need to fire that arrow but it's there if you want it in music there's a lot of straight form that it can be advantageous to the composer to write in that form and adhere to those rules but there's also like free this like this jazz there's blues which is you know there's still framework there but there's a way to break the rules properly or improperly and comedy is the same way I know Jerry Seinfelds he talked about that with when he did the rick jivase and Chris Rock talking comedy and they mentioned like oh you had a joke that had the f-word in it like you're a clean comic and he's like yeah it's because I did the joke and like it only really worked because I said that one line and he's been clean ever since so having that arrow in the quiver for Hammond and that sketch it did make that so of course if they could not say the f-word in that sketch maybe it would have selected a different one that would have been as good or better or worse but the option intrigues me also SNL has such a maybe one week of video on this one as well has such an amazing history of people swearing by accident in sketches and that becoming such a big deal like if you go back to like Charlie Rocket and maybe Jenny Slade or Samuel Jackson like those moments are like very famous SNL moments that if they could swear wouldn't exist around it so I've also seen the argument that structure creates interesting dynamics in our show over here and that maybe the lack of structure won't create over there so I think there are arguments on those sides definitely that's kind of what's going with the framework of music is is that being confined can force you to make something funnier I mentioned Seinfeld earlier it's my favorite show we scripted of all time and the contest episode where this a word they'd never say in the episode go check it out and Jerry recently said in the podcast like oh NBC said we could say it we thought it'd be funny to not say it so that's kind of what I'm getting at is the comedy and this a lot of ass in other examples you know of them using wordplay think about a Colonel Angus Christopher walkin or you know even like nude beach just making in you windows and playing with the framework are they gonna say it what are they gonna say is this gonna be a tightrope walk that might they might fall you know Jenny Slate unfortunately fell in a very tough moment for rookie and that sketch with wordplay that was tough to walk that tightrope and ultimately it's 2026 we're still talking about that sketch so I agree with that take yeah it kind of reminds me a little bit of the you know James he said it to me also like how the sky is graciously giving him the flexibility of hey if we need a little bit of extra runtime we can fit it into the show which I like because it encourages them to put the you know if you have good material get it on but it also has consequences in which this show is meant to be cutthroat in certain sense like that's why it's interesting as you said last week when we talked about this where yes it was just the same like hey we're just gonna put out on play and it'll go for whenever it goes for like that's not as interesting of the show yeah that's what I was going for too is that framework means that oh you didn't get it out in this week try again next time which I guess if it's flexible maybe it's oh we made the sets the costumes already just put it on we'll go a little long the snl machine cutthroat does make for I guess higher drama higher stakes and question five gonna look at power ranking so the first time ever for snl uk was it refreshing was it like just a breath of fresh air after watching the the pre and post covid snl to see a smaller cast like did you feel different about it did you like it was it just different or like was it refreshing what's kind of what I'm getting at is like you've seen the early days so seeing it now 11 people how do you feel about it I think it was refreshing to not have anyone shut out or close to being a shut out by design because the way you have it set up now is there are just too many cast members for a 90 minute show it's not that we don't want them there or that they're not all talented it's that the amount that they have boxes them in whereas it does feel like this show with the format can sustain a healthy number of somewhere between 10 and 14 I'd say and like I think 11 is a great number my my era that I fell in love with the show on had around that same amount and it really does force you to pick the best cast members to stay with the show if you're going to have that yeah looking back my favorite season of the show this season I fell in love with the show season 32 although and cast numbers. So it feels right to me in a way. I just hope that the show, if it continues to be successful, doesn't do what SNL US does, which is just like undying loyalty to their cast, where you can just continue to expand until people decide to leave on their own. It's just a interesting experiment because on this podcast and others that we've done, we hear that complaints or we see on our social media when my screen time goes up and people go, like, where is Melissa? Where was punky? Like, there's complaints from factions of the fan base that I like that a Melissa or a punky had the opportunity to be on that week because a cast without them would be smaller and tighter, but we get a chance to see punky Johnson have a breakout role for a Melissa or, you know, Aristotle or another rookie that had one quick chance. So it's a tough call because I think 11 cast numbers, I'll admit it was a little drawing for me. It was refreshing from a stat angle, I'll admit that, but when I saw George Foreaker's play Starmer in the cold open, and then as you mentioned, the first live sketch, he was leading the way as David Attenborough. I was like, oh, this is the same guy. So in SNL US, that cutthroat nature of a bigger cast has people going, like, this is my best sketch, this is my best sketch, we're going to pick yours, not yours, this is going forward. So it's very different. So I am very much looking forward to seeing that play out because in the US SNL, diversity, numbers, filling roles, punching people in the sketches that don't belong there are all important factors or negative and positive implications that this cast won't have because everyone's need to have to be on the ball and ready to go every week. There's another huge factor that comes into play with 11 cast numbers, which is that David Attenborough's last summer, last summer sketch. We got nine cast members plus Tina, so we don't have the update anchors, we don't have Paddy and Anya in this one. But the fact that you can get nine cast members plus a host at a table in one sketch and introduce them where they can interact with each other is something you cannot get with 16 or 17 cast members. What we end up being forced is to have if we're going to do some sort of impression sketch like that, it has to be within the structure of a movie audition. So we're going to cut from one cast member to another or some sort of live version where they're going to come in and out of a sketch. It creates more chemistry, I think, when you have a cast that is smaller because you can put them all in a sketch and it doesn't feel overcrowded, this was our only real full cast sketch that we had minus our update anchors. So I think that's a good thing and you did get that a lot in the season like 32 that I talked about where you sometimes had like classroom sketches where you got the entire cast in the classroom and they all had their best lines as they're talking to an instructor. Can I mention by the way, I love that they did that. It was like so I felt it in my chest like yes, this is what you need to do. This is a classic SNL format but do it with famous Britons. I would just so happy to see them represent that because it was something familiar but with its twist, which is what remakes and spin-offs always want to do, which is have let's do a parade sketch, but let's put them all on the table. Everyone has a quick line impression, get to see everyone's faces for the first time for some of them and I thought that was like so smart that they did that completely with you. Let's look at the first ever SNL UK power ranking. We sell screen time but as we know screen time is not everything. John Slider. Our 11 cast members for the power. It's very weird to look at power rankings with just 11 but here it's so interesting. Jack Shep is at the top for the power ranking. So even though he had slightly less screen time than George, his roles were more impactful this week Mike. So he has a 224.1. George has a 212.9. So what made that major difference there where the numbers actually flipped here, Jack on top, George and two? Well, as we did, interesting to show talking about what this podcast is on by the numbers is it's a algorithm that takes in consideration two major factors. Appearances, how frequently you appear in the show, screen time, how long you appear in the show. In appearances is a tiered system of are you the lead role, a supporting role, a minor non-speaking role, or an off screen role, like a still image or a voiceover. And so for Jack versus George, their screen time was very similar only five seconds off. Jack did have one extra appearance. So looking at waiting the two of them, looking at George Forekers playing Starman the Cold Open, like he would get the A role, for sure he's playing the PM in that sketch where Jack will be a supporting role. He, uh, George had 425 screen time, Jack 248. So take that one segment, John, and think about A role with more screen time, B role with less screen time. Of course, more points goes to George completely, objectively, you know, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's not up to opinion. So looking at the whole night, we had George Forekers with three lead roles for supporting and Jack with two lead roles, six supporting. And you know, they both got to say live from London, but the numbers all went out to Jack's ship having a 12.2 appearance score, a 32.6 screen time. And like it's those numbers combined, of course, within the day, extra appearance, a little bit more, you know, with equal screen time, that kind of rewards the person who does more variety in the show. So Jack's ship ends up things the power ranking leader for week one. Yeah, we'll see if that continues to flip as we go. We got Hummed, who had a 150.7. So he's in third place. And these are huge numbers, by the way, for this week number one, obviously much higher than what we would get in the US. We'll see if they can maintain these IOA Day in fourth here with a 91.7. Another great number there. Celeste also very good in the number five 89.2. Then we do drop down a bit to Patty, who is the leading update anchor and also had Al at his side of the desk this week. So that certainly was a factor there 76.2 for Patty. We also had Emma CD following him with a 70.6. Al is in eighth place with a 69.1. Larry in ninth place with a 62.2 and then we drop down to Annabelle with a 57.1 at number 10. And at the bottom of the rankings, just for week number one, Anya Magliana with a 55.9. And I also want to mention that Jack's ship was totally front loaded in the show. He appeared in the cold open, the first pre-tap, the first sketch, the second sketch, the second pre-tap, and the third sketch. So other than the monologue, he made six appearances in the first seven segments, you know, other than the monologue. So that also is, he's being rewarded for that too because George Foreaker's had the, I mean, as Jack as well in the Shakespeare sketch, but he had four minutes eight seconds after update versus Jack having 219 after update and having that prime time screen time does help out a little bit in the algorithm. So it's quality of screen time, quality of role, and separately telling the picture that I couldn't possibly explain on my own words. It's when the math helps out, Sean. Absolutely. Yeah. And these are some great numbers that we see here from the SNL UK cast. So, you know, in SNL US, we do use these as a catch all who is doing great in a season and who is maybe not doing as well as we would like them to. And they have been pretty predictive of who may be not returning to the show in the future as they tend to do the changes between one season to the next. We don't know how UK will work if they do get renewed after the first eight episodes if we're going to just keep this cast for a second series or if they're going to make some changes. But this is, you know, what the I test doesn't tell you. This is what the data does. And that's what makes this really intriguing. And John, I think Camp Patterson, maybe go to the UK. What do you think? I think, yeah, I mean, 12 cast members isn't so bad, but maybe for a week, maybe like a dude go there, you know, sort of like a, you know, send it down to the farm team and then get called back up. Right. And so the power ranking is not meant to be viewed as a single episode stat because it's about impact on the show. So anybody can have a great episode, anybody can have a bad one. So Jack, Chef, having a 224 is absolutely insane. Probably the difference of having 14 minutes of screen time versus a minute, two minutes, another rookie debuts where Ash Shupadea having an incredible season leading the cast. and all three metrics has a 106 average. It's not even half of what Jack Shep has, but it's actually literally half of what George Forekis has where Camp Patterson has a 30.0 average 15 weeks in. So this stat will make sense episode 234 in the first one of us in the UK because they will level out. So the average really speaks to the impact. Of course, this week though, it was Jack George and Hammond. Yep, and I can't wait to see how it continues to develop as we get more episodes of data throughout the rest of the series. Absolutely. So it's been fun. What do you think, John? SNL UK eight episodes now got extended since last time we talked from six to eight. It is very exciting. Before we depart tonight, I do have a couple of other things I just wanted to go through. I didn't do a round table. We're not going to do round tables for US. Sorry for UK. So I didn't get a chance to go through some of the things that it would typically go through there. So we did do any cuts? Getshes? Yeah, so I'm going to tell you, so I could do the cuts first. So I did some cuts on Saturday night that I knew of, which was the two update anchors, Optic Respondents. We had IOA Day as a fertility expert. And then George as a guiding poll, who was a divorced man with an AI emergency contact. So those were the two that were cut. Everything was cut from dress. Nothing was cut for time. I also mentioned that Celeste had a pre-taped country travel show where she was playing Helen Black. That did not make the show. So we'll see if that makes it in the future. I don't believe Tina was in that. So that could end up in the show this week. And then there was two that I didn't know about by the time that we were recording on Saturday that I want to mention. And one is where we had, I believe, Patty had a big role in this sketch, opposite of Tina, where he has two gorilla sons played by Larry and Jack. So that would have been another big sketch for Jack. That one didn't make it. So Tina, that one, Tina, Larry, Jack and Patty. And then there was a music video that didn't make the show as well, which was about songs that play on phones in films. And that one had Iowade, Annabelle, Jack and Tina, I believe. And Annab-- I think I'm missing one person. Yeah. Oh, and Al, I think, was in this as well. So those were the five in that sketch. That was a music video song that did not make it to the show. And I'm curious if that one will pop up, because it had Tina in it, and they filmed it. And it was a pre-taped. So they don't-- I don't think they're going to use it on the show in the future. I wonder if that comes on line at some point. And when you look into the writing credits, did any writers stand out to you as, like, OK, these few might be leading the voice of this cast? Sure. Well, John was all over this. He's the head writer. So he's a great guy. I was given permission to share writing credits on the podcast for UK. So SNL US, they kind of have a weird thing of-- they don't always love this, because there is some-- every now and then there are situations. But I was told it's OK to share them on the podcast, not post a graphic of all them. So I just want to be clear for all of our friends that are listening, that if you happen to use any of these that I put here, no problem. Just do me a favor and just say that you heard them on the podcast, because it'll make them more likely to give them to us. And then we can give them to you. But yeah, I thought John was really great. So he was all over the show involved in the Cold Open. He was involved in the monologue, the last supper sketch, as well. Lorna Rose Treen, who you saw a couple times, was involved in internet HQ and Shakespeare's sexuality. Laura Clackston also involved in a lot. So the Cold Open was cool. I'll go through some of this stuff right now for people who could do care. The Cold Open was written by Keith Akushi, Laura Clackston, John Johnson, and Joseph Moore. That same team, plus Lorna Rose Treen, worked with Tina on the monologue. So we essentially had the same team working together on the Cold Open and the monologue at the start of the show. Then the underage, free tape, that was the Ellie, Fulture, and Joseph Moore duo that worked on that, which was very cool. That team that I talked about at the beginning, same team wrote the David Addenbergas last supper. So we also had Keith Akushi, Laura Clackston, John Johnson, and Joseph Moore. Same four writers, Cold Open, monologue, and David Addenbergas last supper. So the whole basically top of the show, minus commercial, had a very similar voice to it, which I thought was a fascinating development in that they wanted to put this together that way. Then you had the Hamid sketch, which was put together with Al Roberts, internet HQ, as I mentioned, John O'Neill and Lorna Rose Treen put that one together. Then you had the shy baby sketch. That was the Nathan Faudre sketch with Jack, who was very involved in that one. We can update how the bunch of writers working on them. You had Al, who was doing his correspondence at Captain Bird's Eye with Humphrey Kerr and Louis Waymouth. And then Shakespeare's sexuality, that sketch was Ellie Fulture, Lorna Rose Treen, as well. I mentioned them earlier. The Pagantan Bear experience also Lorna Rose Treen, and Louis Louis Waymouth. And then the draw fitting sketch, we had Emma Citi on that one. That one, it was basically her sketch that she worked on with Laura Clackston. And then our final sketch of the night, George Fouraker is the 45 seconds with Bella Hall, who, of course, was our announcer for the show. So very much involved in that. And Bella Hall appeared in the internet HQ. So if you see on the screen time, there was a voice. And she was on her phone when Hammond was moving the cursor for her to click. So we did see Bella Hall in there. Yeah, I have heard, through the grapevine, that she is very beloved there. And maybe a consideration for a cast member one day. Yeah, is she the Carl Tarte of the-- Yes, it'll you get. Yeah, get Bella Hall in the cast. That's certainly possible. So yeah, so happy-- like I said, happy to show the writing credits. Just again, I want to make sure that they continue to give them to us. So be patient with the way that you put them out there, but always happy to do what we can to let promote people's work most of all. Yeah, I think it's an important aspect of the show, because much like a lot of the media we consume, whether it be music, TV, movies, that the actors, rightfully so, get the credit. But sometimes it's nice to know that a writer that wrote a sketch that you love, you can look at other sketches they wrote and realize that, OK, I really vibe with this person, like a Julio Torres for SNL or different writers we've seen in the past. So I want to throw it to you, John, for what's coming up in this next off week for SNL US, but on week for Jamie Dornand. Sure. Well, in the last piece of business, I just also want to say MVP, we did-- I mentioned Jack Shepp, but just the results here, which I didn't get to put up on Monday. But Jack Shepp, 39% George Forek, he was very close, 34%, so really a battle between them. And then it was Hum-Aid and Anya and Nicola, who got the next three votes there for MVP. So Jack, well, now one is we put up the graphic on socials. But yeah, for what's coming up here on the SNN. So another exciting week covering SNL UK, very cool that we have pretty much like two straight months of Saturday Night Live. It is a jam packed couple of months for John Schneider, but still very fun, and I'm privileged to get to do it. So I'll be back on Saturday nights to do our after show, right after the Jamie Dornand and Wolf Alice episode of SNL. We'll get some UK perspective on that. And Sammy K is expected to join me on Saturday night. So I believe the UK has not gone through their spring forward time change yet. So we're still looking at an 8 PM start for that show, 8 PM Eastern, or 12 AM if you're living in the UK for that. And of course, available on demand afterwards. So if you want to watch on T-Cock and then come on over on Sunday night, that's no problem as well. Next Monday, we'll also have a feedback show. So we'll give the opportunity to open it up to our patrons to call in and talk about either these first two episodes of SNL UK or maybe the last three episodes of SNL US. A lot of SNL in the last, since last time I got together with Conor Story, Ryan Gosling, as episode and Harry Styles episode as well. So Andrew Haynes is expected to join me next Monday. And we have a lot of patrons already signed up for that. So if you want to join us, you have up until Friday to sign up, page on.com/theSNL network. If you want to hop on over and support us over there, that's one of the great privileges, also our Discord community, and Sammy K's SNL newsletter, where he wraps up the news of the week. And then Mike Murray has been working very hard for over a month right now, doing screen time with us. He also has a new born at home. So we're going to give Mike the week off next week. I believe my plan is that I will still do a sort of buy the number show next week. So we'll still have these numbers and metrics for you. So I'll let you guys know for sure on Saturday or Monday, exactly what day in time we're going to do. While that, I'm going to try and keep things fairly consistent. But you won't be hearing from Mike, but we'll still try and get some of the data into the show. So you're up to date on what's happening with that cell UK for next week. Thanks, John. For an exciting time. As always, thank you to latenether.com for being our presenting partner here. And just expectations for Jack Black, Jack White. You said it for that one. Yeah, oh, man. OK, I can't wait. I mean, I'm also excited to find a-- Of course. Yeah, I'm excited to find out the April 11th headliners, which I'm sure will be coming out fairly shortly. But yeah, Jack Black, Jack White. How can we not be excited for that? I'm so focused on SNL UK the last couple of weeks that it's sort of-- I haven't built the same anticipation that-- maybe I would have, but that could be an all-time epic night. And I'm just preparing myself. Like if anyone knows me and is a baseball fan, the known me huge Chicago Cubs man, Ernie Banks always said, let's play two. I can't wait. I got a bunch of double header SNL nights ahead of me where we're gonna be doing SNL UK into an after show, into SNL US, into a hot take show. Great time to be an SNL fan, great time to be an SNL podcaster. - Yeah, this is crazy. I mean, we knew this was coming down the pipe. The SNL UK episodes. And once we got here, John, I was like, oh man, after the three weeks of SNL, we're really gonna do this. And here we are giving you this content, giving you the SNL UK stats. So if you are a UK listener, thank you for joining us because we have a lot of fun here. And we welcome you into the family and just really want to hear your opinions on SNL UK, especially, but like join us for the other shows because your voices just matter to us and we're just happy to have you in the SNL community. - And I know that the time change could be weird sometimes with, you know, we try and we do these the best we can, but in case you're not with us live, leave a comment on the YouTube video. I love getting to read them. If I can respond to them or Mike can respond to them, we absolutely will. And if you're thinking about supporting us in any way, just subscribe to the podcast. Like that's the best thing you could do. It really allows more people to find the show. So YouTube Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you can find us, search Saturday night network or follow us on social media at the SNL network and we'll promote all of our shows and anything we can to help SNL UK be the greatest it possibly could be. - Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, John. Never thought we'd be doing this, talking about British comedy on the show. I'm so excited to do it with you though. So, also, you know, leave a review or let me know some stats you want to see coming up. Jack Black joined the Five Commerce Club. A lot of interesting storylines going to that week as well. So, I'm excited for the next run of all these shows. We have seven more SNL UK and we have five more SNL US. So that's 12 episodes of coverage. We'll be bringing to you. So for John Snyder, I am Mike Murray of the SNN. We will see you next time, everybody. Thank you. ♪ It's on the Saturday night network ♪