NBC will be adapting the BBC panel program Have I Got News For You for American audiences. The British version has been running since 1990 and involves a group of newsmakers and celebrities discussing current events in a humorous fashion. Given the unscripted format, this represents a program that NBC could keep going in the event of another writers' strike.Other than the name value, I don't see the point of NBC doing an adaptation when they could simply create another program in a similar format. The McLaughlin Report has been doing the panel discussion concept for decades (whether it's for humorous effect depends on the viewer) and I even once attended a taping of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn which was the same concept but involved a panel of comedians and included sketches.
I've never seen Have I Got News For You. For those who have, is it good? Do you think it would fly with American audiences?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-18-2009 @ 12:18PM
Editor - www.tvview.tv said...
A similar show was a great success on the Canadian show "Front Page Challenge" It aired during most of the 1960's and 1970's. It was produced by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The added twist to this one was that the four journalists would try to guess the identity of a hidden guest, who was in some way involved in a news story. After a short Q&A period, each journalist would try and guess the identity of the guest and an often funny discussion would follow the reveal.
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3-18-2009 @ 12:50PM
edgore said...
Isn't this any Bill Maher show?
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3-18-2009 @ 1:03PM
altruistic penguin said...
It's a celebrity panel quiz, there's loads of them on over here (QI, Mock the Week, Would I Lie to You etc all of which can be very funny). Quality varies with the guests and in the case of HIGNFY the presenter (changes every week with some being asked back more regularly than others) and whats going on in the world. If you get good captains it has potential.
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3-18-2009 @ 2:56PM
edgore said...
Ah - so it's like "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me", but with video, teams, and more mixing up of the guests. That actaully could be interesting...
3-18-2009 @ 2:32PM
Jo said...
I want QI!!!!!!
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3-18-2009 @ 3:46PM
Max said...
Sounds to me like Redeye over on Fox News.
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3-18-2009 @ 4:17PM
lkm said...
With the right panelists, it's absolutely brilliant.
The UK version has had two of the same fellows for a long time. They had the same host for a while, until the host himself got into a scandal (and was skewered as viciously as everyone else).
You can see some clips of the show here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/haveigotnewsforyou/
I just hope NBC doesn't defang the format. I still remember what a crappy job one of the nets did in bringing "Spitting Image" over to the U.S...
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3-19-2009 @ 1:17PM
mellonmarshall said...
it great in it time, it got a what the story, odd one out and missing words from headlines with a wierd guest paper(curry news) and it funny but it means taking the pi$$ out of the news which I can't see it working out well
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3-22-2009 @ 10:17AM
newmiyamoto said...
Seriously Brad, how hard would it have been for you to do some ACTUAL research before writing this post?
Even the basics of reading the wiki entry and watching some clips on youtube would have left you mildly informed and made this slightly less of a throw away post.
As for HIGNFY, it just won't work in the u.s. and especially on NBC as the show is at heart about satire and derision of everything and anything to do with the news and even if it somehow kept the format or found one that works, it would never last long enough for the presenters to become comfortable enough to produce a show as good as merton, hislop et al.
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