Why do TV Producers think Americans are stupid?

[photog212]

Firstly, I am an American.
Secondly, I absolutely love BBC America. If you're unfamiliar with it, you definitely should rectify that very soon. Many of the shows are witty, entertaining, and informative. The problem is that American TV producers are importing these shows and dumbing them down. WAY down. What we are left with is bastardized mutants that only resemble their British origins in name alone.


For instance:

Top Gear-BBC

The hosts are charming and very entertaining. In between their humorous reviews of super cars, the host complete challenges, like, driving to the North Pole

Top Gear-US

Three hillbilly morons try to set the record for how many times they can use the word 'awesome' in one hour.

Life-BBC

Informative and beautiful nature program


Life-US

Apparently we're too stupid to understand English and want to be talked to like we're five years old.



Gordon Ramsay-BBC

Stern, yet helpful chef turns around failing restaurants.


Gordon Ramsay-US

British chef yells at people, makes them cry



Is there anyone who can tell me why US producers take good quality television and turn it into crap? They speak English, we speak English. The only difference is the Metric system and currency. Is anybody else bothered by this?

 

[TeeBs]

Fucking venus fly trap FTW!!!

 

[Jackpot524]

Because a large chunk of them are... And guess what! There's stupid people everywhere else in the world that can't get enough reality show remakes! So at least the producers are smart... they're making money off this sub-par material, so why stop?

 

[Rednog]

I don't know about the other shows, but Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen is kind of an unfair comparison. Nightmares is about finding restaurants, figuring out why they are going bell up and trying to fix it. Hell's Kitchen is a competition where most of the contestants are pretty new or just terrible in the field of cooking and the guy has to drag them all by the bootstraps kicking and screaming.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You're not going to like it, but it's because a fairly significant portion of Americans are stupid. You can't really blame them for knowing their audience.
Never have I seen more proof of that then when I've flipped to some American channel on TV and seen one of those commercials for those fucking lawfirms that try to reinforce the feeling of being a self-entitled dipshit in everyone.

 

[Nyaliva]

American TV Producers don't dumb things down because they think all Americans are stupid, it's so that they have a better chance of getting the stupid ones to watch their shows as well as everyone else, which creates higher ratings and makes them rich. British TV producers do a similar thing but they don't dumb the shows down to the same degree because they have set programs which do very well which cater to the more intellectual and then there are other shows which cater to those who aren't as intellectual. Also, wit and intellect is woven into the British culture throughout the centuries whereas Americans have guns!

No but seriously, American TV Producers dumb down shows so as not to upset the people too dumb to understand the show but aren't dumb enough to know what a lawsuit is, and in addition, increase their potential audience and make more money. I love the BBC and I do find that when their shows are remade elsewhere (I live in Australia so I don't know exactly how bad it is in America) they are severely different and lose their appeal for it. That's why I like Blackadder, Doctor Who and The Two Ronnies, the shows which really can't be remade by anyone except the BBC.

 

[WolfThomas]

Because a significant proportion are, I mean it's the same in most countries. When you read about the levels of functional illiteracy it's quite shocking.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

American TV Producers don't dumb things down because they think all Americans are stupid, it's so that they have a better chance of getting the stupid ones to watch their shows as well as everyone else, which creates higher ratings and makes them rich. British TV producers do a similar thing but they don't dumb the shows down to the same degree because they have set programs which do very well which cater to the more intellectual and then there are other shows which cater to those who aren't as intellectual. Also, wit and intellect is woven into the British culture throughout the centuries whereas Americans have guns!

No but seriously, American TV Producers dumb down shows so as not to upset the people too dumb to understand the show but aren't dumb enough to know what a lawsuit is, and in addition, increase their potential audience and make more money. I love the BBC and I do find that when their shows are remade elsewhere (I live in Australia so I don't know exactly how bad it is in America) they are severely different and lose their appeal for it. That's why I like Blackadder, Doctor Who and The Two Ronnies, the shows which really can't be remade by anyone except the BBC.

Dr Who is like my all time british fave alongside Topgear mainly because Dr Who has a decent appeal and Topgear has 3 guys testing cars in crazy situations.

 

[loc978]

Basically because most Americans (which label isn't fair to Canadians, Mexicans, Central or South Americans... USians, United Statesians? ...cookie for reference) who watch TV on a regular basis either are that stupid, or aren't paying close attention, because they just keep the TV on while they work around the house.

 

[gl1koz3]

I'd think they think that more stupid people have access to these shows in the US than other stupid people around the world. Not that America is generally more stupid.

 

[Darknacht]

In America the stupid people buy the most junk.

 

[Enigmatic Master]

Cause people are stupid like comparing hell's kitchen to kitchen nightmares to completely different show though being in the same spectrum

 

[Talshere]

snip

Because as an entity...You are?

Before you report me think on this....

You teach creationism in science, and ebonics in english...

Yeah...

 

[Jackpot524]

I couldn't help but notice you only picked localized adaptations of foreign (from American perspective) programs. Any time a program gets localized they tend to try to give it a local flavour (Of course!) and make it like other popular programs in the country. Breaking the mould is a risky and potentially costly undertaking so I?m not surprised.

My only recent comparison of the same show in different countries where I was stupefied, is the ?Worst Driver? series (Originally a British show). The comparison I saw was the Canadian version versus the American version. In the Canadian version, the focus is for the drivers to rehabilitate themselves and become better drivers. They teach the contestants simple and complex driving techniques and people sometimes lose their licences or get kicked off the show for not making an attempt to improve. Serious improvement results in graduation from the program (It?s an actual driving school) and they get to go home. It?s gone on for six seasons now and is Discovery Channel Canada?s most watched series.

In the American version however they compete to win a? BRAND NEW CAR!!! I palm-faced the second I saw this show, people would ram through obstacles with the encouragement of the judges (As opposed to the critique of an expert panel on the Canadian version) to try to complete the courses as fast as possible to win a? car. Which from the looks of the show? they?ll wreck before they get home.

In short, the ?Americanized? versions of shows generally miss the point? like turning a educational-reality-documentary series into a game show? seriously?!?!

 

[photog212]

Cause people are stupid like comparing hell's kitchen to kitchen nightmares to completely different show though being in the same spectrum

I was comparing the portrayal of Chef Ramsay, not the premise of the show(s).

 

[photog212]

I couldn't help but notice you only picked localized adaptations of foreign (from American perspective) programs. Any time a program gets localized they tend to try to give it a local flavour (Of course!) and make it like other popular programs in the country. Breaking the mould is a risky and potentially costly undertaking so I?m not surprised.

My only recent comparison of the same show in different countries where I was stupefied, is the ?Worst Driver? series (Originally a British show). The comparison I saw was the Canadian version versus the American version. In the Canadian version, the focus is for the drivers to rehabilitate themselves and become better drivers. They teach the contestants simple and complex driving techniques and people sometimes lose their licences or get kicked off the show for not making an attempt to improve. Serious improvement results in graduation from the program (It?s an actual driving school) and they get to go home. It?s gone on for six seasons now and is Discovery Channel Canada?s most watched series.

In the American version however they compete to win a? BRAND NEW CAR!!! I palm-faced the second I saw this show, people would ram through obstacles with the encouragement of the judges (As opposed to the critique of an expert panel on the Canadian version) to try to complete the courses as fast as possible to win a? car. Which from the looks of the show? they?ll wreck before they get home.

In short, the ?Americanized? versions of shows generally miss the point? like turning a educational-reality-documentary series into a game show? seriously?!?!

I think they also won a trip to Disney World or something like that as well.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

Yeah.. one thing that you need to understand that you aren't really mentioning is the difference in risk between American television and the BBC. We focus far more heavily on cost/benefit analysis and pushing shows down to their lowest common denominator for the highest ratings possible. However, the difference in risk here isn't because American audiences are stupider than British ones, that's ridiculous. Rather, it's because the BBC is a national entity that is funded through that weird television license thing. That system takes an incredible amount of risk out of the equation, and allows content creators to get away with a lot more without producers having to drop the hammer and telling them they can't. In short, the systems of distribution are radically different, so it's not really fair to slam content comparatively.

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

because in america, Tvs are essentially the happy boxes from mother 3: completely pointless, yet people enjoy them.

seriously, the only reason I hae a tv is for video game consoles.

 

[WorldCritic]

Because a good number of us are, and there a lot of stupid English people, and a lot of stupid German people, Japanese people etc. I'm guessing American producers just take the whole "fat stupid Americans" thing a little too seriously.