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The news comes after China's content regulator
urged media platforms last week to produce and broadcast
"positive energy" programs to teenagers, and protect them from
"low taste and harmful programs" during the summer vacation.
The Chinese-produced show, which premiered late in June, hosted
by comedy duo Yue Yunpeng and Chen He, has been pulled from
video site Youku, a spokeswoman for the platform told Reuters on
Wednesday, but added it could be back soon.
"(The show) might be online again, be patient," she added. Youku
is one of China's top online content sites, backed by e-commerce
giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
It was not immediately clear who made the decision to take the
show offline or if regulators ordered it. The Youku spokeswoman
declined to comment on specific details.
In a post on its official microblog, SNL China said the show was
"working hard to become better", urging viewers "to have a big
smile for when we see each other next time".
Imported talk shows, which thrive on being freewheeling and
satirical, find it hard to translate their success to China, and
the Chinese version of SNL is the second such show to be pulled
this year, following one hosted by domestic comedian Liang Huan.
Checks by Reuters showed it was not alone, however. A few others
on Youku appeared to have been taken down or postponed,
including one hosted by Taiwanese talk show hosts Kevin Tsar and
Elephant Dee. Youku did not comment further.
China's censors have published long blacklists of banned content
that can range from lampoons of national heroes to overly
graphic violence. Regulators also repeatedly vow to remove
anything that "deviates from socialist core values".
An American professor who had been an outspoken critic of
censorship in China said on Tuesday he was leaving the country
after losing his job at Peking University's HSBC School of
Business in Shenzhen.
The Chinese version of SNL, a show known for its risqué
political sketches in the United States, had seemed to refrain
from touching on political flashpoints in a market where censors
strictly control all content.
The Chinese version avoided mocking political leaders, instead
taking a jab at China's oft-ridiculed national football team in
a recent episode. The U.S. version often lampoons U.S. President
Donald Trump and his senior aides.
(Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI;
Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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