Does US copy-cat too much with new programs?

They made no secret of the fact that American Idol was a result of the success the show had in England. In fact, the same producers of the British show produce the American version. However, the other 'Country' Idol shows are a result of the popularity of American Idol, not the other way around. Hole in the Wall also makes no secret of its origins. I think that this is due to the fact that they were not certain of the popularity the show would have in the US, so they wanted to place the blame elsewhere if it failed. :) I agree that the CSI and the Law & Order shows are just milking the cash cow. The original CSI was/is a great show and has a huge viewer base. The producers and network are certainly trying to capitalize on that popularity by 'moving' the show to a different city. I thought that creativity and originality had been gone from TV for a long time. Sadly, though, most attempts at new shows seem to fail and get canceled well before they have the chance to succeed. It seems that networks are into instant gratification - if a show doesn't procure immediate ratings, it gets canceled. By copying a successful show's format, the networks are hoping that they will be able to have similar success. Personally, I don't really care if show is a copy of a successful show from another country as it is not likely that I would have seen the original version. If by copying the show and bringing to America I can be entertained where I would not otherwise have been, that is OK by me. It does start to bother me, though when several slight variations of the same show start to take over the networks. Law & Order is an example of this. There are three different brands of this show; Law & Order, L&W: Special Victims Unit, and L&W: Criminal Intent. With L&W: CI, they even went so far as to introduce a second sub-series with a different cast! Ultimately, it all boils down to ratings...as long as we continue to watch the copy-cats, they will continue to copy the 'good' shows.

I was not thinking that but I will from here on. Thanks for the info.

I don't think it's demeaning unless they didn't get things as a franchise. It's part of the industry business to sell franchises to those that want to get it internationally. The creativity comes in localizing the show and if it is a hit, then the producers/franchisers would have been successful. We're becoming a global village but it is still a very challenging thing to localize since every country, or even just every social class has different tastes in television. That's probably why these things work.

If you think Americans copy-cat you should come to Trinidad, where every single thing is copied ! At least you do your own production and that works well as everyone can see but over or should is say down here its a pit and piss business down the line ! We used to have calypso, a trendy, casual, charming kind of tropical beat music you could love. What they did with this is what the little boy did with the cat's tail. You can barely make out the words, when they have them, that is ! Don't feel bad about copy-catting in America. Be glad you can produce things that sell everywhere !