Cynthia Erivo may be one award away from the EGOT, but her opening monologue on Saturday Night Live U.K. revealed the one accolade she is really chasing. Hosting this weekend’s episode, the Wicked star admitted that despite holding an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony, there is one prize still missing from her shelf — and it is not an Oscar.
Cynthia Erivo (Credits: Variety)
“No, not an Oscar,” Erivo told the audience, “but the Hollywood handshake.” The line was a loving nod to Paul Hollywood, the famously tough judge on The Great British Bake Off, known in the U.S. as The Great British Baking Show.
Cynthia Erivo’s SNL UK Monologue Imagines a Bake Off Disaster
Erivo then took the joke further, imagining herself competing in the Bake Off tent. The fantasy quickly turned into a comic nightmare, as she pictured herself crumbling under the pressure of the judges’ table. “I’ve got a soggy bottom and I’m freaking stressed!” she declared, borrowing the show’s most famous catchphrase for an underbaked disaster.
The Channel 4 baking competition is judged by Hollywood and Nigella Lawson, with Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond hosting. For a performer used to commanding the stage in Wicked and Harriet, the idea of facing Hollywood’s handshake — or his withering stare — proved to be the perfect self-deprecating gag for her first SNL U.K. monologue.
The monologue set the tone for a big night for the Sky and NOW sketch show. Erivo is hosting the final SNL U.K. episode of 2026, with Blossoms as the musical guest, before the show returns with six new episodes in 2027. The cast has been building up to the finale all week, with Erivo appearing in a midweek sketch alongside Celeste Dring and Hammed Animashaun, as well as at the table read.
Why the Bake Off Joke Landed So Well
The joke works because it plays on Erivo’s own reputation. She is one of the most decorated performers of her generation, yet the monologue cheerfully admitted that even she would fall apart in the Bake Off tent. It is a very British form of comedy: take the most accomplished person in the room and imagine them failing at something ordinary.
It also shows how comfortably SNL U.K. has settled into its own identity. Rather than simply importing American sketches, the show is leaning into British institutions — from Bake Off to the week’s political headlines — and Erivo’s monologue was a perfect example of that approach.
With the 2026 season now wrapped, fans will have to wait until 2027 for the next run of episodes. But if Erivo’s monologue is anything to go by, the finale went out on a high — soggy bottoms and all.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
