It’s often said that the United States and the United Kingdom are two countries divided by a common language. They are also two countries that share a lot of entertainment crossover. When Hollywood tries to adapt hit British shows, both of those things are true. Sometimes the best British shows adapt perfectly, sometimes, they totally bomb in the U.S. Here is a list of times Hollywood tried to adapt British shows, and what the results were.
The Office
The British version of The Office made Ricky Gervais a worldwide star. When it was adapted by NBC for the U.S. market fans were skeptical. The U.S. version quickly forged its own identity, after lifting quite a few jokes in the early episodes. Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is a doofus, like Gervais’ David Brent, but he’s not as mean, and the show has a softer heart than the British version.
American Idol
Pop Idol was a runaway hit in the U.K., so it was only a matter of time before it was brought over to the U.S. In fact, the same team that made it a success in Britain, creator Simon Fuller and judge Simon Cowell, came with it, and brought American Idol to Hollywood. The rest, of course, is history.
Shameless
The British Shameless debuted in 2004 to wild acclaim and ran for 139 episodes over 11 seasons. About seven years later to the day, the American version premiered on Showtime. It was a huge success, running for a total of 134 episodes, also over 11 seasons.
Cuckoo
BBC Three had an immediate hit on its hands with Cuckoo. Season 1 revolves around Andy Samberg as an American hippie who is a fish out of water after marrying into a typical British family. Samberg left the show due to other commitments after the first season, but the show continued to be a success for four more seasons. That success was impossible to ignore, and in 2015 NBC ordered a pilot, with Michael Chiklis and Cheryl Hines starring, though the show wasn’t picked up.
Top Gear
Around 2010, one could make the argument that BBC’s Top Gear was the most popular TV show in the world. It was shown in dozens of countries each week and was wildly popular in its home country. That led to international versions all over the globe, including the first American version, which ran for six seasons, starting in 2010. A reboot, Top Gear America, aired for three more seasons starting in 2017.
Dancing With The Stars
Dancing With The Stars wrapped up its incredible 32nd season in December of 2023. It’s hard to believe the wildly successful show has been on since 2005. DWTS was born from the also-massively successful Strictly Come Dancing in the U.K., which first aired about a year earlier, in 2004, on BBC One.
Skins
During its seven-season run on E4 in the United Kingdom, Skins proved to be both controversial and very popular. That popularity led to an American version produced and aired by MTV in 2011. The controversy followed Skins, but the popularity did not and the show was canceled after just one season.
Veep
HBO’s Veep ran for seven amazing seasons, winning countless awards, and again proving HBO is the most consistently great network for original content. The Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle was based on a British show, The Thick of It, which, like Veep, was created by Armando Iannucci, and was similarly lauded over its four-season run.
Dear John
NBC had a magical run of successful sitcoms in the 1980s and ’90s. One of those, Dear John, starring Judd Hirsch, was taken from a popular British sitcom of the same name (not to be confused with the Taylor Swift song, also of the same name). Both shows revolved around a recently separated man trying to find his way by joining a divorce support group.
Undercover Boss
Undercover Boss has been one of the most popular shows on American television for years now. Like so many other reality shows, it has its origins in the U.K. It started small there, with just two episodes in the first series in 2009, but it, like the U.S. version, has also been wildly popular in the years since.
Antiques Roadshow
Is there anything more quintessentially British than Antiques Roadshow? First airing on BBC One in 1979, it has since aired hundreds and hundreds of episodes. It took a while for the Americans to get on board, but in 1997, PBS launched its version and it too has now aired hundreds of episodes. The format remains very popular on both sides of the pond.
Cracker
The British detective show Cracker, starring the late, great Robbie Coltrane, has an enduring legacy in the U.K. The same cannot be said for the American version, starring the late Robert Pastorelli, which aired for less than one season in 1997 and 1998.
Us & Them
Us & Them was a very short-lived sitcom starring Jason Ritter as Gavin and Alexis Bledel as Stacey. Originally intended to air on Fox in 2013, it didn’t see the light of day until seven episodes streamed on Crackle in 2018. In the U.K., the show it was based on, Gavin & Stacey, helped make James Corden a star.
House Of Cards
For American viewers, it might be hard to believe a show as American as House Of Cards would come out of a British series, but it did. The Netflix drama was inspired by a mini-series of the same name, itself based on a book, that first aired in the U.K. in 1990, and followed a similar plot line and production style.
Too Close For Comfort
Keep It in the Family was a popular sitcom in the early 1980s on ITV in the U.K. The concept of a patriarch living in a house with his daughters in an attached apartment proved a success in the U.S. as well when it was adapted as Too Close For Comfort starring Ted Knight.
Ghosts
When the 2023 Writers Strike halted the production of CBS’s hit Ghosts, the network filled the airtime with the British show it was based on, also called Ghosts. Both shows have proven to be wildly popular with critics and viewers alike, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mad Dogs
The psychological thriller Mad Dogs launched on Sky1 in the United Kingdom in 2011 and had a successful five series run. The U.S. version starring Ben Chaplin, Billy Zane, and Michael Imperioli, however, was less successful. Despite solid reviews and what seemed like a decent audience on Amazon Prime, Mad Dogs wasn’t picked up for a second season by the streamer
Trading Spaces
It’s hard to understand why someone would choose to go on Trading Spaces. It sounds like a nightmare to have someone else decorate your house. Yet, the concept has been a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. First with the British show Changing Rooms, then later with Trading Spaces.
Life On Mars
The best word to describe the BBC series Life On Mars is “cool.” The show, about a police officer who goes back in time to the ’70s, oozed cool. 1970s Manchester, England was a wild place and the show depicts it brilliantly. The U.S. version, which aired in 2008 and 2009, was less cool. Despite some great sets and great performances from all the stars, it just didn’t have the same cool factor and didn’t work as well.
MasterChef
Gordon Ramsey may be English, but he’s a star in both countries. One of his biggest hits in the U.S. is MasterChef, a show that first aired in the U.K. in 1990, though he’s never been a judge on his home country’s version. Still, the format has worked in both the U.S. and the U.K. for years now.
Payne
One of the most beloved shows in British television history is Faulty Towers starring John Cleese. The show, though just 12 episodes in total, has remained a favorite for decades. There have been multiple attempts to recreate the show in the United States over the years, including Payne, starring John Larroquette. The show lasted just nine episodes on CBS in 1999 before being canceled for low ratings.
The Great American Baking Show
There is no question that The Great British Bake Off is wildly successful in both the U.K. and the U.S. The American version, The Great American Baking Show has been less of a success, but still somewhat popular. It just doesn’t have the same charm as the original.
Kitchen Nightmares
Who doesn’t love watching Gordon Ramsey take apart entitled restaurant owners in Kitchen Nightmares? The show, which was revived in 2023 as Fox went all in on Ramsey after a nearly decade-long hiatus, was born from Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, which was a hit in the U.K. The shows are similar in format, Ramsey visits a failing business and helps revive it, but the tone of the shows are very different. Gordon is much more bombastic in the U.S. version.
Free Agents
Free Agents is a weird one. It was a moderately successful show on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, but not enough, one would think, to warrant a go in the United States. Yet, in 2011, NBC did have a go, and the results were unremarkable, as the show was canceled after just four episodes aired.
The Minister Of Divine
The Vicar of Dibley is one of the most popular British sitcoms of all time. It’s even been a hit on PBS in the United States. It is also uniquely British and the idea that it could be adapted in the U.S. is, frankly, silly. Yet, that’s exactly what Fox tried to do in 2007 with The Minister of Divine starring Kirstie Alley. It was, predictably, a bomb, airing just the pilot episode and nothing else.
Not Necessarily The News
HBO has been putting out great original content from its beginning and one of the earliest examples was Not Necessarily the News, which aired throughout the ’80s. It was basically a comedic fake news show, and was based on hit British show, Not the Nine O’Clock News.
Queer As Folk
The cultural impact of Showtime’s Queer as Folk was monumental. The show pioneered showing same-sex relationships on U.S. television. The British version of the same name did similar in the U.K. It starred a young Charlie Hunnam and Aidan Gillen in the U.K., and the drama translated perfectly to U.S. audiences.
Hell’s Kitchen
Hell’s Kitchen was created by Gordon Ramsey in 2004 for ITV in the United Kingdom. The bombastic TV star left the show to other chefs after the first season when he brought the concept to U.S. televisions in 2005. The show has gone on to massive ratings ever since.
Sanford And Son
Yep, that’s right, even a show as American as Sanford and Son has British roots. the Redd Foxx-led ’70s sitcom that lived on for years in syndication was inspired by the British show Steptoe and Son from the BBC in the mid-1960s.
All In The Family
No show defines 1970s America like All in the Family. It highlights everything right and wrong about America, but it isn’t uniquely American. Creator Norman Lear, who died in 2023 at age 101, based the show on Till Death Us Do Part, which was a popular BBC sitcom in the ’60s.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Even game shows have been imported from the British Isles to North America. The most notable is Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Launched in 1998 in the U.K., it wasn’t long before a U.S. version was created, debuting with massive ratings in the summer of 1999. More than 3,000 episodes of the American version have aired since then.
Gracepoint
The murder-mystery show Broadchurch was very successful during its run on ITV in Great Britain. Even though it was shown on BBC America, it was never very popular in the U.S. Still, that didn’t stop Fox from ordering a limited series called Gracepoint in 2014. It even brought in one of the stars of Broadchurch, former Dr. Who star David Tennant. It was a moderate success.
The Prisoner
The 1960s ITV sci-fi show The Prisoner is one of those shows that even if you don’t know it, something you love was probably inspired by it. Long considered one of the most influential shows in television history, it was finally rebooted for an American audience in 2009 in a joint production between AMC and ITV, starring Jim Caviezel as Number 6. It was cool, but not nearly as impactful as the original.
Sometimes the ideas work and sometimes they don’t, but you can be sure that ideas and content will continue to flow back and forth between the United Kingdom and the United States. We can’t wait to see what happens in the future.