Now this sounds like a canny buy, Challenge have bought the rights to The Chase US with Mark Labbett and Brooke Burns, and they’ll start broadcasting them from October 14th. So if you’ve not watched it yet you can see what they’ve done to it enjoy them legally for yourselves.
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Great call. Surprised one of the ITV channels didn’t keep it for themselves, to be honest…
Yes. They could have put it on in a less good afternoon slot as interesting filler, or even stuck it on ITV2. Suspect Challenge will make the most of it though, I wonder if it will open the floodgates to more imports if it does well.
Or perhaps The Chase USA might be the summer replacement for The Chase – or would that be too confusing? (Not sure how to conclude from, e.g., UK and US versions of shows from Jeremy Kyle, Jerry Springer etc. both being broadcast at different times.)
I hope this somehow leads them to them airing Jeopardy. A man can dream, right?
I share your dream Oliver. š
I also share that dream. I’d also like the UK to have another go at our own version of Jeopardy that’s a lot like the current US version as it’s a show I’ve always wanted to have a go at
Add me to that list š
I share the Jeopardy love! They could build a whole ‘American daytime afternoon’ slot during the day.
Agreed on the Jeopardy! front. Give it a decent 30 minute slot and it could do well, maybe with the 1984 US values (Budgets after all).
Although, having said that, how much would it cost to air the US versions of J! / WoF in the UK? I can’t help but feel it would be ridiculously expensive for the rights.
Are there any modern versions of Jeopardy that have been successful outside of the US? The US show is popular but also has inertia – it’s on because it’s always been on – that might be difficult to replicate elsewhere. Also the idea of it being Answers and Questions remains stupid – who on earth answers questions with the convoluted clues you get on television?
Don’t get me wrong, I like Jeopardy and certainly wouldn’t be against some representation in the UK, but I can’t say I’ve ever truly loved it.
There is the Russian version (1994 to present), the Slovak version (1996-09, 2012) and the Swedish (1991-07).
The Spanish version lasted 3 months though.
I thought it would likely do pretty good numbers on ITV2 (even if it did get thousands of tweets saying variations of “It’s not as good” and “Gosh, Bradley’s had some work done.”)
Not sure if it could air on ITV1 – might be too short for the slot, given the limit on the number of ads they can air?
But, of course, GSN in America will never, ever buy rights to Chase UK, because, well, America.
(Then again, with The WB finally airing the original Penn & Teller: Fool Us, stranger things have happened.)
It would be interesting if GSN were to pick up on the UK edition of “The Chase”. But there might be some problems.
Those who have watched the original “The Chase” on YouTube know that, once the commercials are stripped away, “The Chase” in its original UK incarnation comes in at around 44-45 minutes. Our version of the show probably times out closer to forty–perhaps somebody can check this out and confirm or deny. Those extra minutes are taken up with commercials, as we have more, and seemingly interminable commercial breaks than the UK version,
(Not that the commercial brteaks on the UK version do not seem interminable, either. I have a DVD, which a recently-deceased UK game show fan sent me a few years back, with a couple of Series Two episodes, including commercials. The only one that showed some spunk was one for SpecSavers.
Still, if GSN were to pick up the UK show for daily running, there’d be video recorders humming.
I’ve always wondered how the Beast’s colleagues would like to try the taste of American contestants, as opposed to their usual diet.
another idea: “Chase Around The World”–with subtitles so that folks could follow clips of the Russian, German and other international versions of the show.
As someone who lives in the US and loves The Chase I think most of the U.K. will be disappointed with it. Most everything is not as good as the ITV version. The set, music and sound effects are definitely a step down. Brooke Burns tries way too hard to be overly dramatic and overall not as good as Walsh. Also there is only one chaser and that is The Beast. Why there have not been been more I do not understand (other than GSN being stingy with their budget as usual). Also with three people to a team the game is significantly harder. It also annoys me how they milk each moment before going to a commercial. It was about as bad as the NBC version of Deal or No Deal.
I’m not saying this version of The Chase is crap mind you it is just a step down from the original.