Live! From Newcastle! It’s Saturday night!

[Brad Beam]

Comcast’s British cousin Sky is looking to adapt….

https://deadline.com/2021/12/saturday-night-live-british-version-comcast-backed-sky-1234887760/ - ‘Saturday Night Live’: British Version Of NBC Late-Night Comedy In The Works At Comcast-Backed Sky


Sent from my iPhone

[Mark Jeffries]

More like "Live from Elstree..." Sky's new studio facility is near the facility made famous by Lord Lew Grade's ATV and ITC ("The Muppet Show," "The Saint," "This is Tom Jones," etc.) and now owned by the BBC, where "EastEnders" and other shows for the Beeb and other nets are shot.

Confidential to Adam:  Does Alan Dedicoat now say "Live from Elstree..." at the top of "Simply Come Dancing" these days, since the show moved there after the BBC TV Centre in London was turned into condos?  (I know there are existing studios in the former TV Centre, which seem to be all rented by ITV for their daytime chat shows.)

Mark Jeffries
spotl...@gmail.com

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/A1046DCC-3AB4-48B4-8C2E-B275B600EC32%40suddenlink.net.

[Adam Bowie]

It's worth noting that in the late 80s Channel 4 had something variously called Saturday Live and later Friday Night Live, which was very much "inspired" by the not-quite-named-the-same NBC show. 

I'm not totally certain why Sky is doing a UK version of SNL though, aside from they're now corporate siblings. SNL has never really cut through in the UK, but maybe social media and some airings on Sky Comedy mean that it makes sense. Sky does need some hits, because it's heavily reliant on its output deal with HBO (and another with Showtime). You've got to think that HBO Max will launch at some point soon. We just got Peacock, and Sky has done a deal for Paramount+ when it launches in the UK next year (Recently UK Star Trek Discovery fans got mighty miffed when the show dropped of Netflix 3 days before season 4 started. Paramount shoved it on the little-seen, but available, Pluto to placate fans. It's also available to buy from iTunes etc.).

On Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 6:16 PM Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:

More like "Live from Elstree..." Sky's new studio facility is near the facility made famous by Lord Lew Grade's ATV and ITC ("The Muppet Show," "The Saint," "This is Tom Jones," etc.) and now owned by the BBC, where "EastEnders" and other shows for the Beeb and other nets are shot.

Yep - there are studios going up around London and the UK all the time! Sky does indeed have a new place in Elstree, but whether they'll shoot entertainment shows there is another question. It's on the edge of London, and a bit of trek for the average audience member who isn't local. Not exactly the equivalent of heading to Rockefeller Plaza. But Sky had been shooting entertainment stuff like A League of Their Own (presented until surprisingly recently by James Corden) in Elstree at a different studio complex there. 

As I say, studios are going up all over the place. Netflix is taking ownership of a new studio quite near where I live on the northern edge of London, to add to two existing studios they have here. And then there is Sunset Studios - a 91 acre site - going through planning at the moment that's even closer to me. I could easily walk there.

I suspect that this boom is related in large part to the healthy tax breaks available to anyone who shoots in the UK. It helps that there are lots of trained folk to support the industry too. But I do worry that productions can easily walk to the next place that offers even better deals - from Atlanta to Hungary to Quebec (everyone seems to have do a bit of VFX there for the tax breaks).

 

Confidential to Adam:  Does Alan Dedicoat now say "Live from Elstree..." at the top of "Simply Come Dancing" these days, since the show moved there after the BBC TV Centre in London was turned into condos?  (I know there are existing studios in the former TV Centre, which seem to be all rented by ITV for their daytime chat shows.)

I just had to check, but these days it's "Live from the BBC..."

That said, last week's opening montage began with a drone shot of big hanger studio at Elstree that was clearly not Television Centre ("TVC"). I think viewers who are even vaguely interested in where the show is shot know it's not in the old building any longer. 

As you say, TVC is now a studio for hire, and hosts many of ITV's live daytime shows in one of its stages. ITV is moving into a nearby building that was once owned by the BBC in a nearby complex. ITV sold it's own facilities, The London Studios, on the Southbank of the Thames, also for housing development. But BBC shows are also still made at TVC too - Graham Norton for one. Ironically, his show was formerly shot at ITV's The London Studios... All the old TVC offices are now apartments and there's a branch of Soho House in there too. But BBC Studios - the BBC's commercial arm - still has offices there.

Adam

[Bob Jersey]

Adam Bowie, to Mark Jeffries, in part, Dec 10th: