Scorchio

"BBC America is rubbish 99% of the time.", it was claimed in another thread, and rightly so.

Why is this? Out of all the programs the BBC churns out, why do so few make it to BBC America? Is BBCA actually a completely independent company with a limited budget to buy shows from the BBC?

I miss "Have I Got News For You", and, I must admit, "DIY SOS".

Apart from Eastenders what shows would you like to see?

Sorry if this has been done to death before!

Englishmum

Panorama

Newsnight - with Jeremy Paxman.

Top Gear (shown on BBC World in Asia)

Holiday (shown on BBC World in Asia)

Have I Got News for You? (was this C4?)

I'll think of some more later - hubby got back from London last night with a pile of newspapers I'll look at the TV pages to see what we're missing!

dunroving

Emmerdale

Manc

Because if it took a leaf out of BBC1's book and had no adverts it would then be 100% shite not 99%

Muswell Hill

I don't know if it has been said before, but on a recent email from BBCWorld, i was tolf that the BBC was planning to launch BBCWorld here, they are apparently in the final stages of licencing discussions...Great news if you like news and current affairs...like me!!

Muswell Hill

I was desperate for some only fools and horses, so treated myself to a multiregion DVD player and shipped over series' 1-5...23 hours of DVD pleasure!!!!!! I agree BBCAmerica is the biggest load of wank i have ever come across. I don't even watch it for the news anymore as i get the ITN news each evening from newsworld international on directTV, ch.366

NC Penguin

BBC America is really for Americans so the programming is determined by what Americans would watch. As a result, this bears little or no similarity to what Brits would prefer to watch.

Just looking at the shows/genres popular in the US gives you a good idea why BBC America is generally crap viewing for Brits....

tony_2003

I think Red Dwarf would do well.
Not sure about only fools, Americans would be lost I think.

tony_2003

Oh and the Royle Family would be cool...but BBCA wont show that in a million years.

valis

I think the problem is, as someone else pointed out, that BBCAm is for Americans, not ex-pats.

But that still does not explain why the programming is such tosh.

I can't believe that people in a country that can produce "6ft Under", "Angels in America", etc ... etc. want to watch Hyacinth Bucket or endless rounds of Ground Force.

I mean where is the good stuff? Shouldn't BBCAm be a showcase of British TV?

doctor scrumpy

We always watch Keeping Up Appearances on a Saturday night in the DC area. PBS has the really decent shows it seems.

Scorchio

Ah, so BBCA is basically the bargain bucket of the TV channels, showing the bits they haven't yet managed to flog to other networks.. that kinda makes sense..

PrincessofWales

PBS is good, recently had the remake of The Forsythe Saga. A&E is ok too, if you can get past all those crime investigation reports, they ran Mayor of Casterbridge last year. Though they edited it ruthlessly to accommodate commercials so much so that the storyline didn't make sense.

Duncan Roberts

All of the comedy series, Only Fools, Shooting Stars, The Fast Show, Red Dwarf.....etc. The Office went down so well why wouldn't Alan Partrige?
Match of the Day and Grandstand.
All the documentaries and factual programming.

rincewind

I thought the BBC was crap when I was in England and I thought that BBCAm would have the best shows on it. But Keeping Up Appearances??? What will the Americans think?

I miss The Young Ones reruns, Red Dwarf and off the wall type shows. Tomorrows World would be good too.

However, Comedy Central has started showing MAD-TV and now I'm happy. It's way better than Saturday Night Live and we have trouble receiving local channels here so we don't have Fox where it was orignally run.