What's on the telly?

Jason was back at work last week and naturally the weather was grey and misty most of the week so I stayed in and got myself acquainted with British daytime television. There are a few notable things about British television. First of all, about half of the programs are American anyway so its really not that much different, with the exception of commercials. That leads me to the second notable thing about British television which is that there are fewer commercials. The main reason for this is that British television is not free, to watch basic television in the UK you must purchase a box which is ironically named a "freeview" box. You need to purchase this freeview box in order to get the basic channels from an antenna. Also, you must a pay an annual license fee which for colour TV is about £140 per year. So, given the cost of watching television it is only right that they have about 50-60% fewer commercials. When watching American shows a 30 minute show is normally only about 20-25 minutes long.

TV License aside, I think British television is really wonderful. Here are just a few of my favorite things about it. Unlike American TV, promotions for shows on networks are always funny. Instead of seeing the same boring promotion for a television show over and over again, an effort is always made to make these promotions entertaining. Exhibit A is the promotion for "Girls Night Out" which is on Thursday nights. They play "girly" shows like Ugly Betty and Samantha Who? back to back on Thursday nights on a certain network. First of all, just the idea that they could group together several shows on a large network and label it as "Girls Night In" I find very refreshing. If you were to promote something like this in the US on any network (other than Oxygen or Lifetime, which are designated for these things) the network would surely get sued for casting a stereotype and labeling any shows as "for women". Below is a clip of the promotion for "Girls Night In" which always makes me laugh.



Although the quantity of commercials is smaller, the quality is definitely better. Here are a couple of my favorite commercials.

I think the reason I love this commercial so much is because of how horrible the Burger King commercials are in the US. They should consider an approach like this one instead of the really creepy plastic king.



If you are a frequent YouTuber- you have probably seen the first Cadbury advert featuring this gorilla, but this is a new one and although it has nothing at all to do with chocolate everyone loves it.




Another thing I love is how candid British TV is. One example is the introductions and disclaimers for television shows. In the US, a very serious black screen and a very stern man will warn you that a show contains strong language that might not be suitable for children and "parental discretion is advised". The other night I was about to settle in to watch a bit of Sex and the City (which by the way isn't censored here) and before the show a voice over came across and the woman said "This show contains strong language and some nudity, which lets be honest is the reason we watch it anyway!"

Here are some descriptions of my top 3 favorite British TV shows:

1) Don't Tell The Bride: This is a show where the producers of the show give a couple £15,000 to spend on their wedding. The catch is that every single decision must be made by the groom alone with help only from his best man. He has three weeks to plan the wedding and the bride can't know anything about the decisions he makes. It is a very heartwarming show because even though the guys screw up, they do everything they can to try to please their bride-to-be and it is fun to watch them getting into the details. My favorite moment was when a groom decided to cancel the chair covers in order to afford a group of break dancers to perform at the reception.

2) Come Dine With Me: This is a brilliant show where a group of five people who live in the same county spend 5 evenings together where they trade off hosting dinner parties for each other. At the end of each dinner party the other 4 guests have to give them a score which is kept a secret from everyone and on the last night when the scores are revealed, whoever has the highest score wins £5,000. Its funny to see how different people entertain.

3) The Dragons' Den: This is a show where 5 millionaire business executives, coined "the dragons" are presented with proposals from inventors and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs come in asking for a certain amount of investment and offering a stake in the company and they pitch their product or idea to the dragons in hopes of walking away with an investment as well as the business savvy of one or more of the dragons. It is interesting to see the different innovations people are bringing before the panel.

That is all for this week! More next Monday...