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US Versions Airing in Other Countries?

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Argo:
Hi Everyone,

I have been watching some old British game shows lately and I'm wondering if the UK, and other countries, air or have aired the US versions along side their own localized editions, or are they not made available to foreign markets. I assume not as it would be very confusing for some viewers, especially if/when both series are in production, but still curious all the same. This excludes any US stations broadcasting in these markets of course.

Some scenarios that come to mind would be:

UK and AUS Wheel of Fortune / US Wheel of Fortune
Family Fortunes / Family Feud
79-81 (UK) Blankety Blank - (AUS) Blankety Blanks / Match Game
70's UK Celebrity Squares / 70's US Hollywood Squares
UK & AUS (TPIR) / US TPIR
etc...

In Canada we rarely get localized versions of US shows (probably a good thing), but other countries do seem to want their own versions, which sometimes have a much longer life than the original US shows.

thanks
m

nowhammies10:

--- Quote from: Argo on October 15, 2021, 01:25:21 PM ---In Canada we rarely get localized versions of US shows
--- End quote ---

Oh yeah, we never get localized versions of US shows.  Y'know, except for:

* Are You Smarter than a Canadian 5th Grader?
* Cash Cab
* Deal or No Deal Canada
* Family Feud Canada -- still airing
* Match Game Canada
* Mr. and Mrs. -- a proto-Newlywed Game that had a much longer life in the UK
* Supermarket Sweep
* To Tell The Truth -- ran on CTV in the early '60s
* Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Canadian EditionNot to mention shows like Split Second, Chain Reaction, Jackpot!, Pitfall, and Let's Make A Deal, which had concurrent US and Canadian runs, plus the spate of reality shows: everything from The Amazing Race Canada to Canada's Drag Race since the early 2000s.

Also not included here are French-language adaptations for the Québecois market, things like Lingo, La Guerre des Clans, and Pyramide over the years. 

Safe to say we've had a ton of American imports, and in some cases I think the current media landscape in Canada doesn't allow for home-grown formats to shine anymore.

SuperMatch93:
Foxtel aired the US Price is Right in Australia for a while, though I'm not sure if the Australian version was on the air at that time.

Argo:

--- Quote from: nowhammies10 on October 15, 2021, 04:21:40 PM ---
--- Quote from: Argo on October 15, 2021, 01:25:21 PM ---In Canada we rarely get localized versions of US shows
--- End quote ---

Oh yeah, we never get localized versions of US shows.  Y'know, except for:

* Are You Smarter than a Canadian 5th Grader?
* Cash Cab
* Deal or No Deal Canada
* Family Feud Canada -- still airing
* Match Game Canada
* Mr. and Mrs. -- a proto-Newlywed Game that had a much longer life in the UK
* Supermarket Sweep
* To Tell The Truth -- ran on CTV in the early '60s
* Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Canadian EditionNot to mention shows like Split Second, Chain Reaction, Jackpot!, Pitfall, and Let's Make A Deal, which had concurrent US and Canadian runs, plus the spate of reality shows: everything from The Amazing Race Canada to Canada's Drag Race since the early 2000s.

Also not included here are French-language adaptations for the Québecois market, things like Lingo, La Guerre des Clans, and Pyramide over the years. 

Safe to say we've had a ton of American imports, and in some cases I think the current media landscape in Canada doesn't allow for home-grown formats to shine anymore.

--- End quote ---

Stand corrected with egg all over.

I guess it is more a case of not wanting to remember a most of them instead, other than some of the French shows. Also, I should have added not including the US joint productions as they are considered the same series. If that's the case, BtC'69 and New Liar's Club would also be in that list as well, among others of course.

Sorry for the brain fart. Some of us still think Jim Perry was Canadian.

Nick:

--- Quote from: nowhammies10 on October 15, 2021, 04:21:40 PM ---in some cases I think the current media landscape in Canada doesn't allow for home-grown formats to shine anymore.

--- End quote ---

Anymore or ever?  I think back to the maxim of the operations manager at one the Canadian radio stations at which I used to be part of the on-air staff whenever the subject of playing Christmas music was discussed and his opinion on the many different versions of the same twelve songs: "Why am I going to play ‘Last Christmas’ by anyone else when I've got it by Wham?"

He also on one occasion, when the Chrétien government Heritage Minister Sheila Copps said to him in conversation at some gala event that Canadian radio stations need to do more to promote Canadian artists, replied to her, "Not counting the ones that have been given to you, how many CDs by Canadian artists do you own?"  Touché.

So, why would Canadians, who already have access to the American TV market, settle for carbon copies of the same shows (whether you put Canada in the name or not) that always comes with lower budgets and payoffs when they can view the originals?  It's quite gratingly cheesy too when they try to make them "identifiably Canadian content" with stunts such as Canadian-themed questions or sticking the maple leaf somewhere in the logo.

As for those with the concurrent runs both sides of the border, they were the beneficiaries of disparities in exchange rates and available tax credits that made it cost-effective for the Americans to produce here and at the same time gave Canadian stations something to fill those Cancon quotas.

Somebody around here linked an interview a while back that Alex Trebek gave back in the '70s on the subject of Canadian game shows where he commented how they're a tougher ball game because they never have the big prizes the American ones can afford and play in a much smaller station market that's dominated by "the state broadcaster".  Alas, in forty years, not much has changed.

The UK and other countries can take American exports for game shows far more feasibly because the viewers in those markets don't have the American counterparts a few channels down on the dial.  They also tend to much more to make the shows their own, whether it's the sets, the theme, the execution or whatever (on the subject of execution, one of the best examples of this I have seen was the Australian version of Deal or No Deal.  It was a hoot.  The American version... I wouldn't last two minutes with it).  Their unique cultures shine through without it being forced into the product (lest I be accused of insinuating there are no cultural differences between Americans and Canadians, I believe very much otherwise, though in the postmodern Canada, "Canadian culture" in commonplace tends to be, "Well, we're not like those Americans...")

This is why Québecois market can and has done a much better job in the Canadian media landscape at importing American shows because, well, first of all, they change the language to be that of the majority in one part of Canada who is probably not watching the American, English counterparts, immediately injecting themselves into that unique culture.  I gather there aren't too many Anglophones who make themselves routine viewers of the Franco-Canadian game shows (maybe federal public servants who are looking to brush up on their French for job requirements, but you lose that audience once they pass the test).

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