UK vs US Audiences

[Argo]

I have always wondered why there is so much more of an audience for game shows and panel shows in the UK, where as hardly anything works in North America. I don't know if its because they haven't been tried here, or have they just proved not to work. Even the games that originated here like Blockbusters and WLoD had a much longer run in the UK with much cheaper prizes. And comedy panel shows are all over the place. I guess there is no wonder why I watch more UK tv than US.

Mark

[Jimmy Owen]

England is about the size of Michigan or Minnesota.  Light entertainment may be the only viable local (not for export) option.

[remlap]

England is about the size of Michigan or Minnesota.  Light entertainment may be the only viable local (not for export) option.

Yet England has about the same population as Pennsylvania and California combined around 52 million. Not forgetting Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland the rest of the UK which the OP was talking about which totals around 62 million.

Plus minority viewership in Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland where UK TV is carried on cable or satellite.

[davidbod]

The usual obstacle that UK producers have found when trying to adapt Panel shows across the pond is to find the right kind of talent in enough volume. Despite being the home of improv, the US doesn't have enough people too sustain panel shows with laugh out loud, rather than wryly observed, material. I guess it's just a different skill.

[JasonA1]

When you say panel shows, are you talking about things like Have I Got News For You? Because if so, I think that's a beast that's plain hard to establish over here. The closest example I can think of would be "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me...," and for that to take hold on television, I would first see it as an underground favorite, broadcasting on a cable network with little to lose, or PBS.

-Jason

[Jay Temple]

The usual obstacle that UK producers have found when trying to adapt Panel shows across the pond is to find the right kind of talent in enough volume. Despite being the home of improv, the US doesn't have enough people too sustain panel shows with laugh out loud, rather than wryly observed, material. I guess it's just a different skill.

I thought the problem is just that U.S. audiences aren't as satisfied with wry humor and insist on laugh-out-loud.

[clemon79]

I thought the problem is just that U.S. audiences aren't as satisfied with wry humor and insist on laugh-out-loud.

I believe that is precisely David's point.

[pownster]

I know that in our smaller television market (Australia) with 21 million viewers, we have produced a healthy batch of game/panel shows over the past few years, almost to the degree that they are preferred over the classic game show formats. We have adapted many British formats: Good News Week (Have I Got News For You), Spicks and Specks (Never Mind the Buzzcocks), aired many of the others straight from Britain (QI), and successfully produced a few formats of our own (Talkin' 'bout Your Generation). They are relatively cheap to make, and amazingly, they have in recent times rated FAR better than any of the big money game shows (eg. Spicks and Specks and TAYG were rating 0.8-1.2 million vs Hot Seat/DoND ~0.6 million). Audience may be a factor, but our audiences are more attuned to American tastes in humour and so this wouldn't entirely explain their widespread popularity. I believe a panel show appropriately tailored for the local market could be very successful, even in North America (and cheap to produce too).  As for locating talent, our shows have actually been used as an avenue to identify and showcase new talent - many of these people have gone onto bigger and better things.

[Mr. Armadillo]

The usual obstacle that UK producers have found when trying to adapt Panel shows across the pond is to find the right kind of talent in enough volume.

Of all the things American comedians have been accused of lacking, that's got to be the first time I've heard 'volume'.  Usually, your ears are drowning in it.