Saturday Night Live, or SNL U.K., has just announced who is stepping up to host the show on April 11, and it is a very British combination that a lot of people are going to be happy about. Jack Whitehall, one of the most recognisable faces in British comedy right now, will be taking on hosting duties for the fourth episode of the SNL U.K.’s debut season, with soul and R&B singer Jorja Smith joining him as the musical guest for the night.
The announcement came on March 31 and immediately got people talking, partly because both Whitehall and Smith are genuinely popular names in the UK right now, and partly because SNL U.K itself has been generating a good amount of conversation since it first launched just a couple of weeks ago.
This year’s SNL U.K has moved fast so far. The show started off with Tina Fey hosting and Wet Leg as musical guests on March 21 which was a strong start to a new series. Next, Jamie Dornan hosted while Wolf Alice performed. Then this weekend, on April 4, Riz Ahmed will host with Kasabian as musical guest.
The April 11 episode will feature Whitehall and Smith, followed by a break for the show. SNL U.K. will return on April 25 for the four episodes remaining in the first season. The week off follows a similar schedule as the original SNL in America (three weeks on and one week off). This suggests that the UK producers are intentionally using the same formula that has worked for SNL in the US for decades.
Worth noting is that prior to SNL U.K’s debut, Sky publicized an extended first season from six to eight episodes. To get that kind of extension added to the show before it was even established indicates that Sky was pretty sure the show had something good enough to make them want to make more episodes.
Who is Jack Whitehall, and why does he make sense on SNL U.K?
Jack Whitehall stands among those British comedians who not only has a long reputation in the UK, where virtually everyone knows him, but he has also built up a considerable following internationally. His most popular roles in Britain include the TV show Bad Education, where he portrays a humorous, incapable teacher, and the Netflix travel series, Travels With My Father, where he travels the world with his real-life father, Michael Whitehall, who is an actor and producer.
He is a regular on the sports panel show A League of Their Own, which aired for many years on Sky and was a favourite for a certain kind of British TV watcher who enjoys comedy people being competitive in sport-related trivia. Whitehall’s extensive performance background makes him a compelling option for hosting SNL U.K While he has been the host of the BRIT Awards six times, more than any past host of the BRIT Awards, including this year at the Co-op Live in Manchester.
On paper, there is nothing same between a live awards ceremony and a sketch comedy show, yet both require a person who can handle unexpected things, remain calm when they do not go as planned, and keep the audience with them for a long evening, no matter what. Whitehall has all of those qualities.
Jorja Smith and what she has been up to?
Jorja Smith’s been building toward a career since 2018, when she released her debut album, Lost and Found, earning her the BRIT Award for British Female Solo Artist as well as Mercury Prize Special nomination.
Falling or Flying, which was her second album, was released in 2023, and since its release, she has been busy. She will also co-headline the All Points East Festival on August 16 at Victoria Park in London with Nigerian artist Tems, and that is a pretty big deal for an outdoor festival. She also contributed a song called Price of it All, for the series called Bait, which has also received a lot of attention lately, and is available on Prime Video.
SNL U.K airs live in the UK at 10 PM on Sky One. The show is then released in the US on Peacock the next day, at 9 PM ET. The regular cast, which includes Hammed Animashaun, Emma Sidi, Ayoade Bamgboye, Jack Shep, and Paddy Young, appears in each show, which has 75 minutes of airtime. The shows follow a similar format as the original SNL in the US; there are opening monologues, topical (current event-related) sketches, and lastly, live musical performances.
Edited by Sarah Nazamuddin Harniswala