Brit TV Rules America - OK?

There was a time when Britain produced some of the best television programs in the World. Everyone recognized this fact but the truth is that it didn’t sell too well in America. The BBC used to regularly pretend that it did. But the facts portrayed a different picture. Yes, “Masterpiece Theater” was on Public Service television, however it didn’t impinge on the wider consciousness of America. This audience might have been getting a diluted flavor of England’s culture from the derivatives of “Till Death Do Us Part” with the American, homogenized version, “All in the Family”, and a similar transfer occurred with “Sanford & Son” which had its genesis with Britain’s comedy classic “Steptoe and Son”. However the truth was that our cultural and programming clout in the States was minimal. We simply didn’t get their culture in its broadest sense. Even though this tradition continues to prosper with the stateside version of “The Office” it still is not accepted across America as mass market.

This changed completely within the last few years when not only did the Brits begin to hold their own on television, but actually started to dominate the TV jungle. Oddly, it was when Britain started producing real mainstream, low brow mass market entertainment television shows such as “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, and “The Weakest Link”. British telly became a totally dominant force with the advent of “American Pop Idol” and all the Simon Fuller, Simon Cowell originated shows that flowed from this inspiration. They took vertical and horizontal integration of an old Variety entertainment format to a new level and it worked all over the world, but particularly in the States.

Much cheaper than drama to stage per minute, but engaging the audience with the real life “journey” of the variety of different contestants who interact with each other, the stylized jury and the voting TV audience. The jury has its villain, its fair guy and its kind Aunty and the proceedings are always watched over by an amusing and witty master of ceremonies who represents fair play for the audience.

Strange and more than a little sad isn’t it, that after all those years of elitist but wonderful Britain trying to force feed the world its high end culture it was England’s end of the pier fun, mass market entertainment that finally conquered the world.