15 Versions of ‘Saturday Night Live’ From Around the World
In 1975, the Not Ready for Primetime Players were first unleashed on late-night audiences when Saturday Night Live premiered on NBC. Created by Lorne Michaels and starring legendary players Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner, to name just a few, the variety sketch show quickly became a cultural phenomenon, with its now-iconic opening line, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”, signaling the start of a new era in television comedy and launching a legacy that continues to influence generations of performers and audiences alike.
Recently, the brand launched a British version, taking the Not Ready for Primetime Players concept across the pond to test its distinctly American brand of sketch comedy with U.K. audiences and see how its fast-paced, irreverent humor translates on an international stage.
But did you know this is just one of many international versions of SNL? And that the U.K. alone had several iterations before this one?
Thanks to the massive success of SNL in the United States, the brand has branched out to other countries, which have created their own versions of the show. Here is a look at all the different versions of SNL that exist around the world. Please enjoy.
Saturday Night Live, Saturdays, 11:30/10:30c, NBC
Saturday Night Live (United States)
1975 – present
The U.S. version of SNL, the first and most legendary iteration of Saturday Night Live, was surreal comedy at its best when it debuted, often leaving contemporary audiences scratching their heads even as they embraced its offbeat tone, boundary-pushing sketches, and anything-goes sensibility that felt unlike anything else on television at the time. It set the tone, created the template, and established the blueprint for generations of sketch comedy that followed, proving that live television could be daring, unpredictable, and culturally defining all at once.
RTL Samstag Nacht (RTL Saturday Night; Germany)
1993 – 1998
Hosted by a mixed bag of German celebs and American personalities who never got their chance on the U.S. version, including folks like Mel Brooks, Richard Grieco, Robert Englund, and Michael Winslow. A resounding success, the surreal, offbeat vibe of SNL worked well with German audiences, but the show came to an end after key members of the cast left.
Saturday Night Live From Milano (Italy)
2006 – 2011, 2018
Airing for four seasons on the Mediaset channel Italia 1, the Italian version of SNL used the U.S. template, but reformatted the comedy for Italian culture, politics, and social issues instead of straight translations of popular American sketches, like other SNL versions. The result was a successful translation of the format that lasted 36 episodes.
In 2018, a version called Saturday Night Live Italia was briefly revived by TV8.
Saturday Night Live (Spain)
2009
This Spanish language version aired on Thursdays for…reasons. It also remade a few of the famous American sketches, but with mixed results, as they didn’t translate well, including the “More Cowbell” sketch. The series boasted Cuatro’s most-watched entertainment debut, but interest quickly faded after the premiere.
Saturday Night Live Korea (SNL 코리아; South Korea)
2011 – 2017, 2021 – present
One of the few iterations still running today, the first South Korean version of SNL aired for nine seasons in just six years and was a hit with both critics and audiences, winning multiple awards along the way. Like the U.S. version, it became a launching pad for comic talent and a showcase for musical acts. But after a scandal involving cast members, combined with new political sensitivities, stricter defamation laws, and declining popularity, it eventually went off the air.
In 2021, the show returned on the streaming platform Coupang Play and was widely seen as a highly successful revival, featuring top-tier hosts. The reboot was reworked as more of a variety show, leaning more heavily into satire and general comedy than the traditional music-driven late-night format. Over the years, notable guests across both versions have included Chloë Grace Moretz, who spoke Korean in her sketches, as well as Tom Hiddleston, Jason Mraz, and Miranda Kerr, among others.
Saturday Night Live Japan (サタデーナイトライブ JPN; Japan)
2011
Created in part with Coca-Cola and Lorne Michaels’s production company, Broadway Video, the Japanese version of SNL ran for only six months on Fuji TV. Only 45 minutes long and featuring two main hosts, Koji Imada and Sanma Akashiya, the show aired once a month and was always planned for just six episodes. Other than that, the format was the same, with guest stars appearing alongside the cast and a musical guest breaking up the comedy with a performance.
SNL Brasil & Saturday Night Live no Brasil (Brazil)
2012, 2017
Saturday Night Live tried twice to get a show up and running in Brazil. The Portuguese-language version originally ran on Sundays and featured a majority of prerecorded sketches. Running for 90 minutes on RedeTV!, this first version failed to take off. In 2017, it was tried again, this time on Saturday, but achieved similar results.
Saturday. Evening. Show. (Суббота. Вечер. Шоу.; Russia)
2013
Unlike other versions of SNL, the sketch show was not broadcast live, which is why “Live” was omitted from the title. Airing on NTV, the show was yanked after three episodes due to low ratings and bad reviews. Its title was eventually switched to Today. Evening. Show. to air the remaining episodes.
SNL Québec (Canada)
2014
Made up of only two 90-minute specials, the French-language SNL for Canadian audiences was hosted by actor-comedian Louis José Houde and Stéphane Rousseau. The series adapted well-known American skits such as “Debbie Downer” and “Schweddy Balls,” mixing them in with original material.
SNL Suomi (Saturday Night Live Finland; Finland)
2016
Standing out from the pack because it only boasted a four-person cast, the Finnish version of SNL often featured noted Finnish comedians and actors such as Aku Hirviniemi, André Wickström, and Pamela Tola. However, the MTV3 show was deemed a bit lackluster, and as a result, the sketch comedy show lasted only 12 episodes.
Saturday Night Live bil Arabi (Saturday Night Live Arabic; ساترداي نايت لايف بالعربي; Egypt)
2016 – 2017
The Egyptian late-night sketch comedy series aired on OSN Ya Hala HD and followed the SNL format fairly well, perhaps too well. Popular and well-received, the show ran for four seasons in two years before the Supreme Media Council eventually suspended it for containing “sexual implications.”
Le Saturday Night Live (France)
2017
M6 debuted the pilot episode, which remains the show’s only episode. Not meant to be a weekly series, the program was conceived as a semi-annual institution, and the first and only episode, featuring comedian and actor Gad Elmaleh, was a success but received mixed reviews.
SNL Polska (Poland)
2017 – 2018
Produced for the Showmax streaming service, SNL Polska featured live performances from Warsaw with a local Polish cast and hosts, mirroring the original’s political satire and comedy format. It received mixed reviews, praised for its effort but criticized for failing to capture the frantic energy of the original version.
SNL China (周六夜现场; China)
2018
Three weeks and three episodes after its debut, SNL China was yanked by streaming giant Youku, which removed all episodes and clips from the platform. According to The Wrap, the removal of the sketch comedy show followed a government crackdown on “excessive entertainment and advocating wrong inclinations, such as money worship, hedonism, quick success, and instant benefits,” which would be firmly prohibited to build a healthy and clean entertainment environment. It also seemed that the apolitical version of SNL was less popular among Chinese audiences than its American counterpart. On the social media site Weibo, SNL China promised to “try to become better and worthy of your expectations” next time it aired, but when that would happen was unknown.
Saturday Night Live U.K. (United Kingdom)
1985 – 1988, 1993, 1996, 2007, 2022, 2026 – present
Buckle up. Get ready for some lore. There have been many versions of Saturday Night Live U.K. before the most recent adaptation. And one of them was on Friday.
The first version, called just Saturday Night, began in 1988, and returned for a 2022 special. The cast featured Ben Elton and Harry Enfield, and it featured appearances by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, Emo Philips, Tracey Ullman, Craig Ferguson, and Sam Kinison, just to name a few. The pilot featured legendary comics Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall from The Young Ones and Bottom as they performed as The Dangerous Brothers.
This version was later retitled Friday Night Live in its third iteration.
In 1996, the show came back on Saturdays, regained its old name, but only lasted eight episodes before the plug was pulled.
In 2007, ITV tried its hand at SNL, calling it Saturday Live Again, and brought back original host Ben Elton.
Then, in 2022, it returned as a one-off for Channel 4’s 40th-anniversary celebration.
The most recent version, Saturday Night Live U.K., appears to be a hit. Some critics have even said it surpasses the current U.S. version of SNL in many cases, capturing the irreverent humor from days past.
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