UK Game Shows

[adamjk]

I am curious, as to why game shows that air in the UK have much shorter series or seasons for us Americans, then shows here in the states do. Anyone know?

[Steve Gavazzi]

I think pretty much every show in the UK has shorter seasons than shows in the USA.

[remlap]

Most gameshows are in prime time here, except the weakest link so pretty much theres shows waiting to get the next prime time slot.

Thats why they have to be shorter, we get through like 3 different series of have I got news for year sometimes a year

[urbanpreppie05]

IIRC, (and feel free to correct me on this) The UK TV season is a year-long, and shows have shorter series because they are rotated in and out with different shows.

Or is that Australia?

[RMF]

Not sure about UK game shows, but most UK prime-time programs use a 6 or 7 episode season, rather than the American 22-26 episode season.

[uncamark]

The Brits among us can correct me, but:

-- For one thing, scripted shows are all written by one writer or perhaps a couple of writers, who have the ultimate creative control and aren't required to come up with 22 scripts a year whether or not they have 22 good ideas.  If they just have four good ideas, that's what they do.  If they're running dry, the show goes off for a few years until they get inspired again.

-- Especially with the taxpayer-funded BBC, the audience is believed to want a more frequently-changing schedule.  (One could say that the old show biz saw of "always leave 'em wanting more" could apply.)

Anyway, one of the facets of more reality shows on U.S. prime time is, with many of them based on European formats, they are designed to play out over a fewer number of episodes than 22 a season.  Of course, what we call a "season" the Brits call a "series"--"Have I Got News for You!" has twenty-some series over about 15 years because they generally do two series a year (which seem to me to usually run 13 weeks), and each one is counted separately and not considered a one-year "season."

[TravisP]

The only Primetime Game Show which runs in long term over here recently has been Millionaire? running on Saturday nights between September - June. Having that season split into two series (September - December & January - June) totalling around 40 episodes a season. This all started back in 2002 which the switch from 4 days a week to once a week.

The National Lottery Game Shows are technially the second longest with certain shows running up to 20 odd weeks, as Jet Set finished their 4th series in April which lasted 19 weeks (originally 15 but 4 weeks was added on). In It To Win It which finished last Saturday ran for 15 weeks but lasted longer due to having the odd week off due to football & Olympics. Winning Lines return for their 6th series this Saturday which will probably run for around 13-15 weeks.

PYCR in the mid-late 1990's ran for around 16 weeks per series with the same being applied to WOF & BPIR with the later series lasting around 20 weeks.

Other than that its the Daytime Game Shows which last longer with Channel 5's Memory Bank & BrainTeaser running all year along with Countdown running two series every year one after the other adding the odd exhibition match on Bank Holiday's and days where the cricket isn't on . Weakest Link is the same but they take the summer off for Wimbledon and insert repeats throughout the year.

[TLEberle]

While we're on the topic of UK shows, and the natives are paying attention...

I actually got a chance to see Memory Bank and Countdown while in London last month; cricket was over early, as it were.  Both good shows, but they'd get slaughtered in the states.

Memory Bank is kinda like Eye Guess for an hour, (it's not that dull, I SWARE!) with a play-at-home word game.  A unique point, they have two hosts who swap duties each day (can any Brits help me out with names...Rachel and John, I think?)

One thing I noticed is that it's almost the exact opposite of shows in the United States, either no audience, or they're very quiet.  I'll admit it was a welcome change for a few days.

Thanks for letting me ramble for a bit.  If you look closely, you can see my contribution to the thread.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Sep 8 2004, 06:36 PM\']Memory Bank is kinda like Eye Guess for an hour, (it's not that dull, I SWARE!) with a play-at-home word game.  A unique point, they have two hosts who swap duties each day (can any Brits help me out with names...Rachel and John, I think?)[/quote]
"Brainteaser," "Memory Bank"'s sister show (which came first), also has rotating hosts.  They're both live every day on Channel 5 and they're both shot in Oxford by Endemol--and in another era of GSN, Endemol might've pitched the show to them.

(And I guess that both "Memory Bank" and "Brainteaser" don't try to hide the fact that they have no audience by dubbing in canned response, unlike GSN's live interactive shows in the old days.)

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Sep 9 2004, 03:44 PM\'] [quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Sep 8 2004, 06:36 PM\']Memory Bank is kinda like Eye Guess for an hour, (it's not that dull, I SWARE!) with a play-at-home word game.  A unique point, they have two hosts who swap duties each day (can any Brits help me out with names...Rachel and John, I think?)[/quote]
"Brainteaser," "Memory Bank"'s sister show (which came first), also has rotating hosts.  They're both live every day on Channel 5 and they're both shot in Oxford by Endemol--and in another era of GSN, Endemol might've pitched the show to them.

(And I guess that both "Memory Bank" and "Brainteaser" don't try to hide the fact that they have no audience by dubbing in canned response, unlike GSN's live interactive shows in the old days.) [/quote]
 There's a *sister* show to Brainteaser? My word...BT has to be the most boring hour of British television since The People Versus.

[Brig Bother]

Memory Bank and Brain Teaser are both filmed in Bristol now, as it happens.

Brainteaser has it's fans in a "it's quite pleasant to watch whilst eating your lunch" kind of way. And it's popular with students.

MBs hosts are Rachel Pierman and Jonny Gould, who is also C5's baseball expert and hosts overnight coverage.

Slightly out-of-date reviews here.

[Ian Wallis]

-- For one thing, scripted shows are all written by one writer or perhaps a couple of writers, who have the ultimate creative control and aren't required to come up with 22 scripts a year whether or not they have 22 good ideas. If they just have four good ideas, that's what they do. If they're running dry, the show goes off for a few years until they get inspired again.

Case in point would be "Fawlty Towers".  It ran for 6 episodes in 1975 and returned for 6 more in 1979.  During the early '90s, they were usually run on PBS stations on Saturday nights - but I haven't seen it now in years.   I believe they all are on DVD though.

Sorry....can't think of anything game-showy to add...