A bomb here, a hit there

[Blanquepage]

Of course, can't forget The Rich List / The Money List. Quite successful in the UK.

[Jimmy Owen]

Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris-8 episodes on NBC.  Ant and Dec Saturday Night Takeaway-18 seasons in Great Britain.

[Kniwt]

Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris-8 episodes on NBC.  Ant and Dec Saturday Night Takeaway-18 seasons in Great Britain.

And its Australian version, Sunday Night Takeaway, also got the axe after just one series in 2019. (Although it was quite a bit better than Best Time Ever, which admittedly isn't saying much.)

[ivoryman1986]

Weakest Link lasted for 12 years in the UK and only 1 season with Anne and George.

Temptation (New Sale) did poorly in America and lasted 1 season while the Australian revival lasted 4 seasons.

Actually, for Weakest Link, it lasted for 2 seasons with George.

[Kniwt]

There's also the curious case of Taskmaster, which bombed in its one US season on Comedy Central, but Series 13 is about to air in the UK. But not only that, when The CW acquired Taskmaster UK (with much press hype at the time), it lasted only one episode before being canceled and eventually shunted off to its streaming service.

But in the "bomb" category, a local version also failed miserably in Spain, where it was canceled before all episodes were even shown.

[doctorwho]

If we're going to talk Spain and bombs, "Boom!" is apparently still going there more than 7 years after it bombed off the air here.

[Unrealtor]

And speaking of Spanish shows that outlived their originals, the BBC's The Alphabet Game (a total of 15 weeks) turned into Spain's Pasapalabra (on almost continuously since 2000), which turned into ITV's Alphabetical (6 weeks.) The Spanish version was also the origin of versions in Argentina (2016-2021) and Chile (2018-present.)

[chris319]

One wonders what would have happened if Bud Austin had earned his keep and licensed Jay's shows overseas. How would Whew! have fared abroad?

[TLEberle]

No idea, but Blackout was retitled Take the Plunge and got ten shows out of it. Hitman might have done a little better—yup, 14x.

[Jimmy Owen]

"That's Amore" with Luca.  Five years in Italy.  One year in US.

[dazztardly]

Temptation (New Sale) did poorly in America and lasted 1 season while the Australian revival lasted 4 seasons.

The US Temptation was a dud for sure. I do wonder what the outcome would have been, if they had just stuck with the original Australian format.

-Dan

[geno57]

The ones that come to my mind, have already been mentioned … Call My Bluff and Blockbusters. Both huge in the U.K. … the former a flop in the U.S., the latter only moderately successful here.

I’d love to see Blockbusters rebooted as a high school and/or college show here. I think it might catch on with the kids.

[CeleTheRef]

A couple hits in Italy:

Identity lasted 12 episodes on NBC, in Italy it's now in its 11th season;

and if you look at non-US formats, Argentinian format  El Legado lasted one season in its home country (plus a "kids" edition), in Italy it's the longest running gameshow, in it's 20th season (and episode 4774 is on while I'm writing this  )

[BrandonFG]

A couple hits in Italy:

Identity lasted 12 episodes on NBC, in Italy it's now in its 11th season;

This amazes me, given how much I couldn’t stand the NBC version because it dragged so much. The game itself was clever but it took forever. Do they at least cut to the chase in Italy?

[CeleTheRef]

A couple hits in Italy:

Identity lasted 12 episodes on NBC, in Italy it's now in its 11th season;

This amazes me, given how much I couldn’t stand the NBC version because it dragged so much. The game itself was clever but it took forever. Do they at least cut to the chase in Italy?

Quite the contrary: in Italy games are slower in order to give viewers more time to play along.  Also consider that the average age in Italy is pretty high, so it's only good practice to give grandma that extra minute or two to think over that final puzzle before the reveal.

A good example is Chain Reaction, where contestants are instructed to answer after the buzzer.  CR has been airing every Summer for the last 15 years.

Compare an American Chain Reaction bonus round with an Italian one

   -_- yawn