Britain Looks To Japan For Christmas TV

[Mulboyne]

[YT]QbcLnGbEfWs[/YT]
Soap star Sally Lindsay appears as Danni Minogue

I've argued before on FG that Japanese television, for all its faults, comes up with a whole host of low-cost programming ideas. As broadcasters overseas have sought to fill their schedules, they have increasingly resorted to many of the same solutions: cookery shows, golf channels, audition shows, and the use of tarento-type minor celebrities. Last night's Boxing Day television in Britain saw yet another example of a programme very familiar to anyone in Japan. ITV, the oldest commercial terrestrial broadcaster in the UK, put out an hour-long "All Star Impressions Show", featuring celebrities doing singing impressions of other celebrities. In other words, a monomane show. I doubt whether ITV needed to buy the format from anyone in Japan because it is a simple idea and it would be difficult to claim copyright. Nevertheless, it was pretty much the same, as a series of celebrities known best to a British audience, lined up with some professional mimics and comedians. Boxing Day television used to be a centrepiece of holiday programming as families would sit down in front of the box after having gorged and drunk themselves silly for a couple of days. With the TV audience now much lower, it doesn't make much sense for a broadcaster to spend a lot of money on a show so this format must have seemed like an undemanding way to fill up some time. I'll let you know if we get something like an All-Britain Disguise Grand Prix or a Red and White Singing Contest next year.

[eddie]

next stop for this show will be the u-s then, i guess