British Panel Shows. There seem to be so many across the pond with loose, looosely-related shows here and there in the US. What haven’t these panel shows become more poprular over here?

Question

\^Why instead of what 🙂

In: Other

Answer 1

I’d argue that over the past several decades, the late-night talk show has taken that spot for Americans. Standups come on to test out new material, they play the occasional wacky game, there’s a bit of banter. Different format than most panel shows, but the same general idea. The writers write a monologue and prepare a few lead-in questions, maybe a sketch or a game, and the host and guests take it from there.

The occasional panel show has done well in the US – I’d say that After Midnight is probably the strongest-performing one in a while, and it’s essentially a classic panel game show with a social media theme. But I think it really does come down to what we all grew up with. The late night show had an indelible place in American society from the mid 60’s through the mid-2000’s, and they still do decently well. Panel shows would need to compete with primetime programming or take a late night show, or else they’d become daytime programming or become popular on some other network. Which has certainly happened – look at Hollywood Squares for a long-running example.