# ‘SNL UK’ Has Found a Way To Make ‘Saturday Night Live’s Biggest Problem Work

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/snl-uk-has-found-a-way-to-make-saturday-night-lives-biggest-problem-work/
- Published: 2026-10-31T20:38:11+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-31T21:40:45+00:00
- Original publisher: Collider
- Original article: https://collider.com/snl-uk-saturday-night-live-cold-open-current-events/
- Topics: UK, World

## Key points

- SNL UK writes cold opens against a tight two-day deadline.
- Fresh news can become material before it loses relevance.
- A Melania sketch was cast and coordinated the day before broadcast.

## Summary

Saturday Night Live UK’s short turnaround for its opening sketches creates pressure, but also lets the writers respond to news while it is still fresh. At an Edinburgh TV Festival masterclass, co-head writer Jonno Johnson and cast member Emma Sidi described how the programme uses that immediacy to make topical comedy feel timely and earn strong audience reactions.

A small group of writers usually starts the cold open on Thursday evening; cue cards are due three hours before Friday’s 8 pm blocking, leaving little time for rewrites or rehearsal. Recent subjects have included Prince William’s appearance on The Graham Norton Show and a Melania Trump sketch following a press conference about her links to Jeffrey Epstein. Sidi said she was assigned the role the day before broadcast, while producer James Longman checked with the US SNL team, who were also preparing a Melania sketch.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.