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American Television in Other Countries

I lived in Japan for a year..... and I never understood how television worked in that country, which wasn't helped by the fact that I rarely watch TV to begin with. It seemed like they had only seven channels, and I could never really tell the difference between any of them, and I don't recall ever seeing an American drama on them. I also remembered that some of my Japanese friends just couldn't understand what ESPN was when I explained it to them.
 
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We get all the usual popular shows here. The only odd trend is that while pay TV (Sky) tends to broadcast all the decent shows, TVNZ (free-to-air national broadcaster) has a habit of buying US shows that have been cancelled, so that they suddenly stop in the middle of a season. I gather they do this because they're cheap.

I don't really watch TV much, because so much of it is reality TV which I despise. I prefer to buy dramas etc. on DVD. As a result I have a relatively small selection of shows I watch, because I can't afford to be buying masses of DVDs.

We also get a wide range of British and Australian TV shows, plus the locally-made stuff.
 
In Venezuela, we have grown up watching most of your Tv shows. You name it: Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Full House, My Secret Identity, Saved By The Bell, Thundercats, Heman, Carebears, Who's the Boss?, Alf, Tales From The Crypt.... I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. So we're pretty familiar (if not alienated) by American Television :)
 
lionking said:
We get, unfortunately, what rates. Sitcoms out-rate The Wire.
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Very true but I still expect, say, ABC to bring us the less commercial gems that are available.

Oh, and I have to thank One HD for (almost) live NFL games. Go Packers!
 
In my country of origin, Denmark, you get the most popular American TV shows, though usually 1 or 2 seasons behind the product in the US. Makes for some funny moments when stuff that was hot 2 years ago is mentioned in an episode and everyone has since forgotten it. :o
In my current country of resisdence, Philippines, the American influence is high and you get almost all the same series as in the states. Glee is amazingly popular here almost more than in the US.
 
I remember when I was little "Dynasty" was very big here. We had our own version of it called "L'Or du temps" with ridiculous actors and cardboard sets. Good times...

Also "V" was very popular too. We even had action figures you could tear the faces off and reveal the reptilians underneath.
 
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hgc said:
Dubbed into Welsh? How many non-English speakers are there in Wales?
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There are virtually no non-English speakers in Wales. About 20% of the population are bi-lingual and use Welsh as a first language. In some parts of North Wales, people will speak English in pubs and shops unless an English person walks in, when they will suddenly switch to Welsh. All road signs are bi-lingual, despite the fact that 80% of the population only know English.
 
I have recently taken to watching more television than I used to, and the thing that amazes me about most US imported shows are the amount of ad breaks the show has, many of which aren't used as ad breaks here. So we get the "when we come back" or "coming up", but not the break in the programme.

Here's the UK TV listings for tonight: Radio Times
 
Agatha said:
I have recently taken to watching more television than I used to, and the thing that amazes me about most US imported shows are the amount of ad breaks the show has, many of which aren't used as ad breaks here. So we get the "when we come back" or "coming up", but not the break in the programme. Here's the UK TV listings for tonight: Radio Times
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That is one of the things that really infuriates me about UK produced shows these days even BBC shows, they are structured for USA scale of advertisements so every 10 minutes we get a summary of what is coming up later on in the programme, and then a summary of what we've just watched!!!!!!!!!!! (I've even got my green biro out to write to the BBC about this and I mean real writing on that white flat stuff that you put in one of those flat white containers.).

And even worse than that we have Attenbourough documentaries edited to 50 minutes and not an hour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm going to have a lie down now and listen to Radio 4.
 
Darat said:
That is one of the things that really infuriates me about UK produced shows these days even BBC shows, they are structured for USA scale of advertisements so every 10 minutes we get a summary of what is coming up later on in the programme, and then a summary of what we've just watched!!!!!!!!!!!
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This reminds me of the show Entertainment Tonight. They do the exact same thing.

I swear, if you cut out all the previews and the summing-ups, you get only 3 minutes of actual material.
 
Yeah, lots of American TV in the UK, not that I mind a lot of it is much higher quality than the reality TV, soaps and catchphrase sketch shows that make up so much of our domestic production at the moment.

At the moment I'm particually enjoying

House MD, True Blood, Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead


Of course these do share a casting irregularity.... ;)
 
I'm from Singapore. We get a lot of American shows on our TV. I like American Idol, Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. My daughters are great fans of Friends and Glee. But among the sitcoms, I prefer Seinfeld Sex in the City was banned for a while, I think. Or it's only available on HBO. My late father who couldn't understand a word of English loved watching The Bold and the Beautiful.
 
Aside from HBO (of which I get four variations), we have two English language HK station that play a mixture of stuff, but just about the lowest common denominators you could find. They love Supernatural stuff so any of those, well, supernatural dramas is rather popular. And the worst reality shows they can find, like America's Next SuperModel. And of course they're still into America's Got Not Even A Modicum of Talent but I think American Idol and the X Factor have gone bye-bye.

The thinking shows are on after I'm in bed, generally. House, CSI - whichever version - Monk.... I'm not sure if they're even still on in the states or if I'm seeing this year's series or last - I rarely watch TV that late, anyway.

What we do get is some interesting shows that I have no idea where they come from. For kids - Art Attack is cool.. For me, Meercat Manor was a real pleasure. Accents tell me they're from England but I never watch the credits and don't know if they're BBC or independent.

We also get NOT A SINGLE cooking show from the USA - nothing but English, and they're not very good, frankly. (But I haven't seen an American cooking show in quite some time and maybe they're just as bad.)
 
timebomb said:
I'm from Singapore. We get a lot of American shows on our TV. I like American Idol, Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. My daughters are great fans of Friends and Glee. But among the sitcoms, I prefer Seinfeld Sex in the City was banned for a while, I think. Or it's only available on HBO. My late father who couldn't understand a word of English loved watching The Bold and the Beautiful.
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No accounting for taste, I suppose.
 
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arthwollipot said:
No accounting for taste, I suppose.
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Oh, yeah!!!??? (That's what passes as a sharp rejoinder in America!)



;) Just kidding. Noted the time stamp and while you read a lot, you don't read fast enough to have read my post while you were typing in the same minute.
 
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