Tina Fey<\/a> on why she was picked over a British star to host the launch episode of Saturday Night Live UK.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan<\/p>\n
During the opening monologue of the March 21 debut episode – based on the long-running US sketch comedy programme on NBC – comedienne Tina asked the studio audience if anyone had questions for her, and 39-year-old actress Nicola stood up and made her query.<\/p>\n
The Bridgerton cast member jokingly asked Tina: \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to see you, but my question is, if this is SNL UK, then why are you the first host? Shouldn\u2019t it be a British icon like David Beckham, Judi Dench or Shrek?\u201d<\/p>\n
Tina – who was head writer and performer on Saturday Night Live US from 1997 until 2006 – replied: \u201cWait, Shrek is British?\u201d<\/p>\n
Referencing that the ogre (Mike Myers) speaks with a Scottish accent in the animated DreamWorks films, Nicola responded: \u201cScotland is in Britain, Tina. Educate yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTina, 55, responded: \u201cWell, that is a valid question, \u2018Why an American host?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\nShe then quipped: “And the way it was explained to me was that for this first episode anyway, how can I put this politely?<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNone of you f****** would do it. Does that make sense?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nDerry Girls alum Nicola answered: \u201cIt does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nShe then added: \u201cIs it possible that many of us were a little reluctant to do the first show because this is going out in Britain, and British people tend to root for the failure of others?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTina asked Nicola: \u201cWhy are you guys like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTo which the latter replied: \u201cWell, not me. I\u2019m Irish. Educate yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nNicola then said that she would be up for being a guest host on one episode of the eight-part series of Saturday Night Live UK – but only if the programme\u2019s bosses secured singer Olly Murs, 41, as a musical guest on her night.<\/p>\n
\nThe Goat actress then quipped: \u201cI would be honoured to come back – and win a BAFTA for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnother surprise cameo on the debut episode of the Sky One sketch comedy show was from Arrested Development actor Michael Cera, who also stood up in the audience and pointed out something to Tina.<\/p>\n
\nTina joked why he was in the live studio audience because he is not British, to which he replied: \u201cI\u2019m Canadian, it\u2019s a part of the Commonwealth. Educate yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMichael, 37, did not have a question, but he noted that Tina dropped the F-bomb when she joked to Nicola that no British star wanted to host the launch episode of Saturday Night Live UK – which is broadcast live each week with a guest host and a musical guest.<\/p>\n
\nMean Girls actress Tina replied: \u201cOh, yeah, we\u2019re allowed to swear in this version of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nFollowing a wave of cheers from the audience, Michael said: \u201cThat\u2019s crazy, can I try?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAfter Tina agreed he could, Michael blurted: \u201cS*** bird. F****** b*******! I think I\u2019m going to use it sparingly. I\u2019m classy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nFollowing another round of applause, Tina asked for one last question before she surprisingly said that Graham Norton, 62, was in the audience and he wanted to ask something.<\/p>\n
\nGraham stood up and noted to Tina that Saturday Night Live UK uses the same studio for his eponymous BBC talk show, recorded at Television Centre, White City, West London.<\/p>\n
\nGraham then joined Tina on stage to tell her about a \u201cfiddly thing\u201d about the studio before he jokingly entered interviewer mode and got the star to prove her \u201cdeep love\u201d for British comedy.<\/p>\n
\nTina quipped: \u201cGrowing up, we thought that anything British was educational, so my parents showed us all British shows, and we used to watch Benny Hill as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTina showed off her British TV knowledge by doing impressions of characters from shows that Graham reeled off, including Absolutely Fabulous, Monty Python and Fawlty Towers.<\/p>\n
\nGraham even got Tina to say some iconic British commercials, including the \u201cnothing beats a Jet2 holiday\u201d slogan from the airline\u2019s advert.<\/p>\n
\nAt the start of her monologue, Tina shared how thrilled she was to be hosting Saturday Night Live UK.<\/p>\n
\nTina said: “I am so excited to be here in London. It\u2019s an absolute honour, and honestly, kind of historic.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cGuys, I am the youngest person ever to host SNL UK!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nShe then jokingly explained why she thinks the UK should do a version of Saturday Night Live.<\/p>\n
\nTina quipped: \u201cWell, like so many large-scale American operations these days, no one really knows why.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSaturday Night Live UK\u2019s cast members are Hammed Animashaun, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young.<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"21 March 2026 Nicola Coughlan jokingly quizzed American Tina Fey on why she was picked over a British star to host the launch episode of Saturday Night Live UK. Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan During the opening monologue of the March 21 debut episode – based on the long-running US sketch comedy programme on NBC – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13907,13905,13906,13901,13903,901,13909,13904,830,13900,13908,7912,13902,2519,2253,2484,13910,1210],"class_list":{"0":"post-229928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-al-nash","9":"tag-ania-magliano","10":"tag-annabel-marlow","11":"tag-ayoade-bamgboye","12":"tag-celeste-dring","13":"tag-david-beckham","14":"tag-emma-sidi","15":"tag-george-fouracres","16":"tag-graham-norton","17":"tag-hammed-animashaun","18":"tag-jack-shep","19":"tag-judi-dench","20":"tag-larry-dean","21":"tag-michael-cera","22":"tag-nicola-coughlan","23":"tag-olly-murs","24":"tag-paddy-young","25":"tag-tina-fey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}