IDEAS & EXECUTION
The American version of the long-running UK hit Top Gear airs on History.
Now more than ever, UK producers are finding homes on American television for their unscripted formats. But a few U.S. producers are starting to make inroads across the pond with adaptations of their series. What do producers from both territories need to know about how to make their content connect with new markets? BY MANORI RAVINDRAN
Culture Clash? W
hen chef Gordon Ramsay came to America for the U.S. adaptation of Kitchen Nightmares, he started shouting a little louder than he did in the UK. It’s not that American audiences weren’t listening – the series ran for seven seasons Stateside, after all, only ending this past summer – it’s that they expected a bigger performance. Ramsay’s showmanship – and lung capacity – have made him one of the best known UK imports, but the variations between the American and British series reflect what is quickly becoming apparent to U.S. and UK producers looking to cross over into each other’s territories: more than an ocean separates these markets when it comes to reality programming, and if a show is to succeed, it must cater to specific cultural sensibilities and find its place within a larger context. “The Brits and Americans are so similar in so many ways, and so culturally different
in how they view television programming, that it’s a slippery slope,” says Brent Montgomery, CEO of Leftfield Entertainment, one of the few U.S. production companies to have exported a show – Pawn Stars – to the UK. “In general, British audiences have a stronger appetite to let content breathe and be less in your face.” Pawn Stars UK kicked off its second season on History in the UK in September, but it’s the exception to a trend that sees more shows crossing over from the UK to the U.S. than the other way around. It’s not that U.S. formats aren’t strong enough to travel overseas, but rather that U.S. producers aren’t as incentivized to sell abroad because, unlike their UK counterparts who can exploit their IP via the Terms of Trade agreement, most of them don’t legally own the formats. Plus, the sheer size of the U.S. TV market makes having rights to a hit series more valuable within the country than outside of it. But that hasn’t stopped American
producers from looking elsewhere for a hit format to adapt, and the last decade has seen iconic shows such as Dancing with the Stars, What Not to Wear and, of course, American Idol originating from UK formats. Eli Holzman is president of All3Media America, and his team recently debuted The People’s Couch on NBCU cable net Bravo in the U.S. – an adaptation of the Channel 4/ Studio Lambert-produced smash Gogglebox, in which people are filmed watching television in their homes. “I was very skeptical about the show in general and skeptical that it would work anywhere – including the U.S. – but that was only until I’d seen a bit of the footage and then thought, ‘Wow, it’s amazing,’” admits Holzman. But The People’s Couch needed some reupholstering before it had a chance of working in the United States. Showrunner Aliyah Silverstein points out that Americans respond to “bigger laughs delivered more frequently” and a faster pace, meaning that while the UK show
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2014-09-19 3:52 PM