British TV vs American TV

 

The Main DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AMERICAN AND BRITISH TV (UK VS USA TELEVISION)

One of the things you might not have time to do when you’re visiting London is watch TV. Why would you when there’s so many other things to do?     However if you’re an American or a Canadian living in London like me through time you’re going to be watching a lot of TV or as they call it here telly.  I’m not counting this difference but you’ll find there is a lot more violence especially with guns on American television. However in the UK you will hear a lot more swearing on TV.  They show a lot of American television here, and you’ll find a CD in London to see episodes of friends The Closer NCIS Blue Bloods Family Guy Big Bang Theory and obviously Game of Thrones.   American expats living here if there’s any shows I’ve forgotten please add those in the comments below.

I’m mostly watch II in London although here I think they should just call it K because it seems like all they show our episodes of the Kardashian you’ll also occasionally find nags or wags.  Whatever that show is watched and the wrestling show with the Bella Twins if you do like it you’ll have to wait the next day for the news because obviously there’s a time difference.  If you like Bravo’s Real Housewives they show those here however they’re usually a season late they also show ladies of London.  However my guilty pleasure the Royals the second season wasn’t shown here despite the fact that she lead character is played by Elizabeth Hurley who is  British and Dame Joan Collins also has a role in the show.  I just think it understandably wasn’t very well received by British people.

Now there are some shows that are shown in both countries but they are with different cast for example master chefs there’s a master chef America and there’s a master chef here there’s also Strictly Come Dancing in the UK.  If you watch Dancing with the Stars that show came after Strictly Come Dancing and was based on it it’s now an international phenomenon and it’s in many countries.  Len and Bruno were both judges in the UK as well as America you can also see Big Brother,  America’s Got Talent Got Talent, The Voice and lip-sync battle in both countries.

LL Cool J’s lip sync battle was first you’ll also find networks do the same kind of shows.  For example MTV had Jersey Shore in the u.s. here there’s a version of it called Geordie.  Sure I had always heard the commercials here we’re really different first they’re called adverse and there are a lot less of them now when I returned to America.   I find that our commercials especially the local ones are really flashy loud and overdone for example car dealership commercials I never see those kinds of things here.  Also in the US when new shows are being launched Network show their promos over and over and over again I don’t experience that here.

I also don’t see at the end of an episode that infamous make sure you watch next week when thing happening to promote the next week’s show another difference is soap operas I was a huge General Hospital and Days of Our Lives fan when I was growing up here the popular soap operas are Emmerdale Coronation Street EastEnders and Hollyoaks.  The big difference from what I can see is our soap proffers are shown during the day here they’re mostly primetime TV.  If you love old school Christmas shows you might be disappointed if you’re in the UK for Christmas. For example I’ve never seen the claymation Rudolph or the animated Frosty the Snowman while living here so if you want to see those you’ll probably have to buy copies on Amazon.   They do have a sky Christmas channel which will show things like home alone I find award shows to be different.

I watch the BAFTAs for television recently that’s like the Emmys in America I noticed that there wasn’t hours of red carpet coverage shown ahead of time the speeches seemed like they were shorter it seemed more focused it was also on the BBC so there were no commercials. The show also took place during a general election and the nominees were actually told if they said anything political in an acceptance speech that it would be cut.  I can’t really imagine that happening in America we obviously don’t have Eurovision in America it’s the longest running international television song competition.

Eurovision has been happening since 1956 each participating country submits an original song to be performed live on television radio and then cast votes for the other country songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The winner doesn’t really have an explosive launch to their career who past winners were ABBA and Celine Dion.  I think there’s a difference also in morning news television shows between the two countries having worked for NBC News the only thing I ever watched in the US was the Today Show.

I was really disappointed the last time I went home and watched the Today Show it seemed all they were doing was promoting their upcoming shows and the stars that were on them I don’t think morning television shows here do that something else that’s not on here is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade even if it was on in London. I wouldn’t be able to watch it because I’ve had to work on Thanksgiving the past couple of years it’s not a holiday here again NBC has just turned that into one giant promo for all its upcoming television shows and stars and at least they’ve still kept the Rockettes and Santa Claus in the show.

Like and share this video if you found it valuable subscribe to the sunny news if you don’t want to miss any future videos about the differences between the UK and the USA as well as information about fun things to do in London and now the biggest difference which could be a real game-changer if you’re American and considering moving to London and that’s your ability to watch NFL skins. Now over the past five or six years have actually played some games in London which means you can watch them at a normal time but if you want to see the Super Bowl live at a bar that means you’re basically standing there for a midnight kickoff.

I’ve never gone to a bar here to watch the game because I know I can’t stay awake late enough I’m guessing if you watch it live in London that you won’t have the ability to see the commercials as the people in the US will and that’s usually one of the high like please remember as you’re leaving comments that I am still learning about British culture as an American living in London I know London doesn’t represent the entire UK I used us first UK in the titles for search engine purposes I would appreciate if you left suggestions of shows you think that I should watch or perhaps other American expats who move here would value seeing as always thank you for watching

To Watch the BBC iPlayer Outside the UK – Try This Free trial  , it’s basically a variant on using something called a VPN.  Many people use these to bypass the geo-restrictions employed by many media sites including the UK and US TV channels which appear online.   By using this DNS method for the BBC and other channels you can watch from any device including direct from most Smart TVs.