Position Paper 2 - International Media Trends

England: The precursor to popular American television.

Television, though a slowing industry due to the popularity of streaming and online content-creator based services such as YouTube, still has a market, but it's shrinking. There are a select group of individuals who still sit in front of the TV every night to watch whatever program is on for the night, but that is slowly becoming a rarity. Shows like "The Walking Dead" and "Game of Thrones" routinely dominate the ratings for weekly television viewers and the dedicated audiences for these shows often watch on live TV as the online upload for these shows takes a few hours to their respective streaming service.

Despite the dying art of television, new shows are coming out every quarter on major networks, chomping at the bit to find a hit series to drive the ratings up to what they once were. Every network is looking for the new "Breaking Bad" or "Sons of Anarchy", a show that enthralls audiences week by week and the numbers will skyrocket during the tense finales. Most networks never find that show, and it seems likes the new 'settling for' is game shows, usually involving some major product placement, like the game show "Beat Shazam" or shows that offers branded prizes. The ratings for the show might not be high, but the network can still rake in some cash for advertising.

Something that has always interested me is British television. Now, the reigns on what's allowed on British television has been tightened a little in the past few years, but their programs are still very modest. Nudity and vulgarity are a common feature, but they aren't necessarily looked down on. In fact, some of the most popular shows involve these characteristics such as "Skins", "Top Gear", when it was on the air, and "Peaky Blinders".

Something I would like to examine are British TV shows that have made their way to America, whether it be via remake or just a straight transfer, and examine how these shows performed.

Firstly, the show "The Office". Today, "The Office" is the most watched program on Netflix, outdoing popular series on the platform "Orange is the New Black", "The Walking Dead", and countless other series. "The Office" originally aired in the UK from 2001 to 2003 with a British-led cast including Ricky Gervais and Martin Freeman. The show was not very popular, only lasting two seasons on television. However, the show was rebooted in America under the same name with a different cast including Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, and Jenna Fischer. The show ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013 with major success on NBC. However, the ratings for the show weren't at their highest until the show was added to Netflix where it has become a phenomenon. The show became so popular that at one point when a rumor began stirring that "The Office" would be removed from Netflix, social media caught on fire with threats of users leaving Netflix. Eventually, Netflix put the rumors to rest but there was still a worldwide stir.

The U.S. has also stolen some reality TV shows from Britain, including popular shows such as "Cash Cab", "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", and "The Weakest Link". All of these shows started as British shows, but they each grew into very popular shows in America, very much so for "Cash Cab" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".

Probably my favorite show taken from U.K. television is "Hell's Kitchen". The show pits amateur chefs into a high stakes, fast paced kitchen with renowned chef Gordon Ramsay. I find it very ironic that the show started in the U.K., but when it moved to the U.S., it was set in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. The theme song still occasionally gets stuck in my head.

The cast of 'The Office'. (U.K left, U.S right)

The popular British show "Skins" made its way to U.S. television to much disdain by American and British audiences. Aforementioned, British television is very gritty and not censored very much, so with the FCC involved on American television, British audiences were very upset with the censorship and the 'less gritty' feeling. American audiences however felt that the grittiness and roughness of the show, though heavily censored, was too much for American television. 

It's hard to think of any American shows that were transitioned to British television just off the top of my head, but it's very easy to think of British shows making their way to America.