‘Saturday Night Live’ Sets U.K. Edition, Launching on Sky in 2026

Every franchise dilutes the value of the brand. There’s rarely a good reason for this beyond “make more money.”

Sometimes, it works. The Office is a good example but it was a situation comedy re-contextualized for a different audience that wasn’t aware of the original.

A sketch comedy show can’t be treated the same way. You can’t transliterate the characters and jokes. So, it’s just going to be a format carbon copy with the name slapped on for no reason other than it’s recognizable. And, that means the name is expected to do some heavy lifting which doesn’t bode well.

5 comments

Because in Britain we’ve always lacked satirist and sketch writers.
This is so shit.
- Yes we do
  
  500 years, give or take
- Every franchise dilutes the value of the brand. There’s rarely a good reason for this beyond “make more money.”
  Sometimes, it works. The Office is a good example but it was a situation comedy re-contextualized for a different audience that wasn’t aware of the original.
  A sketch comedy show can’t be treated the same way. You can’t transliterate the characters and jokes. So, it’s just going to be a format carbon copy with the name slapped on for no reason other than it’s recognizable. And, that means the name is expected to do some heavy lifting which doesn’t bode well.