One of the best ways to destress after a long day at the office is coming home on the weekends to a performance of live comedy and music.

There’s nothing more relaxing than hearing the famous line, “Live from…London, it’s Saturday night?”

That’s right, the hit American comedy show “Saturday Night Live” has made its official debut in the United Kingdom in the form of “SNL U.K.”

Admittedly, it seems a bit odd to create a British version of the successful American show, as the target audience would be much more limited.

You can’t even stream it on Peacock live; you must wait until the next day. “SNL U.K.” airs live in the U.K. on Sky One and streams on NOW.

Despite this, the show still brought a solid 226,000 viewers, which is 3.2% of the television audience at the time, according to Variety.

For context, that’s a greater viewing party than Channel 4’s screening of “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” with 215,000 viewers and nearly four times the number of viewers watching “A League of Their Own” with 5,000 viewers, Variety said.

Interest is there at least in the U.K., based on viewership. But why should other audiences care?

For starters, it’s more of the same. That might sound like a turnoff for some, but this ultimately means one thing: Lorne Michaels.

Regardless of your opinion about “SNL,” it’s impossible to deny the comedic genius that is Lorne Michaels, who serves as executive producer on the U.K. show and served as the executive producer for 45 seasons on its American counterpart, as well as being its creator.

This allows the show to feel very in line with the American show due to the mixture of pre-recorded and live sketches, musical guests, random guests’ appearances and wordplay being the crux of jokes within the writing.

For the debut episode, Wet Leg performed as musical guests with random guest appearances including Nicola Coughlan, Michael Cera, Graham Norton and Regé-Jean Page.

Even the debut host is a familiar sight in the form of “SNL” alum Tina Fey.

Why an American host for the first show, you ask? Funny, Coughlan asked the same thing. Fey’s response was, “None of you f****** would do it.”

Fey’s response is the second reason the show should matter to other audiences: censorship.

In the American version, cursing on the show isn’t allowed because it’s aired on NBC, which is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. In the U.K., this regulation doesn’t exist.

This is because the U.K.’s broadcasting regulations, run by Ofcom, are much less strict. As a result, you get more cursing and therefore much edgier jokes.

The edgier jokes in the American version usually occur during the Weekend Update sketch with mixed audience reception depending on the content, but the edginess is allowed to be spread across the show in as much or as little moderation as the writers want, which results in stronger and more consistent audience engagement.

With a reason to exist and good viewership at the premiere, was the show even good?

It is more of the same, which means a mixture of sketches that hit and miss.

For example, the cold open followed suit with the American version by making fun of politicians due to its focus on a phone call between U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and United States President Donald Trump.

The volume of laughter in the room proved the sketch to be a funny one, but others didn’t hit the same mark, like the maternity ward sketch, which takes the spot of the obligatory absurdism sketch.

Another metric to judge humor by is breaking character. While it’s generally frowned upon for the cast to break character, it proves the humor is strong enough to even make those saying the jokes laugh.

The biggest instance of this in the show was seen during David Attenborough’s Last Supper with famous U.K. figures like Winston Churchill, Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury.

Speaking of the cast, they are phenomenally talented but appear like misfits on first glance.

However, the cold open managed to set the tone with Hammed Animashaun’s deadpan dialogue, George Fouracres’ impression of Starmer and Jack Shep’s channeling of Gen Z energy and wordplay.

Animashaun’s deadpan humor is the only variety we see throughout the show, but Fouracres and Shep find niche ways to evolve the humor, including Irish songs and a spot-on Princess Diana impression, respectively.

Three other cast members who show promise are Ania Magliano, Paddy Young and Al Nash.

While the scope of their performances is limited, they have the start of comedy gold, but still must sift through the sand to reach it.

Magliano and Young are the anchors for Weekend Update and do an excellent job at their delivery that could rival that of the American version’s Colin Jost and Michael Che, given more time.

For example, Magliano’s jokes about Prince Andrew contrast nicely with Young’s joke about a helium shortage, using a prop helium tank due to the Strait of Hormuz being closed, which gives off classic “SNL” energy.

The remaining cast members include Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, Annabel Marlow and Emma Sidi, who didn’t have prominence in the first episode, but that will only become a problem if future episodes don’t feature them more.

“SNL U.K.” had a strong start with its debut, but there’s still room for growth from the cast and sketches.

Even so, the overall viewership and audience reception spell a positive future for the growth of “SNL U.K.” to give us more of the same comedy we love.

Luke Brewer can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].