For Britons only (and the rest of you don't realize how lucky you are)

[fpb]

Have I got news for you has been funny for decades, and its desirable prime-time Friday spot is deserved. Little Britain is unfunny, faddish and tasteless, and yet is placed immediately after it. This proves; one, that the best things at the BBC are those that go back to well beyond current management; and second, that current management is wholly incapable of anything like intelligent choices.

Comments

[filialucis]

Mmmph... beware, though, of thinking that the rest of us don't have programming inflicted on us that's just as bad. Austrian TV seriously sucks.

It also runs Little Britain (or ran; I pay less and less attention these days).

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Now that surprises me. I would have thought Little Britain, apart from its unfunniness, too local - not to say provincial - to successfully travel outside, well, little Britain.

[filialucis]

At the moment it seems fairly safe to say that nothing is unfunny or provincial enough to find its way into the Austrian Broadcasting Corp.'s programming. This one even gets shown with an option to hear the original soundtrack, which is a fairly infrequent occurrence and generally reserved for really bottom-of-the-barrel stuff (like Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy from the other side of the pond).

TV reception in my area has deteriorated since broadcasting went digital; some days we don't get a usable signal at all. I have less and less reason to care about this.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

It may also prove that someone at the BBC is smart: people who watch a well-loved show sometimes will stay in front of the TV for whatever is on afterward (at least, this accounts for much similar program scheduling here in the States).

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

What izhilzha said. Quite often over here you'll see a half-hour show that's not doing well rescheduled to fall between two of the network's top-rated shows. They're hoping that people will just keep it on while they wait for the next good show, thereby boosting the crappy show's ratings.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - the show that followed Little Britain was the main evening news. However, this does not account for the BBC insisting on this unattractive, unfunny and tasteless item year after year. I find it hard to believe it has more than a niche market.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

Maybe someone at the BBC is backing it? I remember from broadcasting school that the British network is run by the govt. and not private corporations as ours are. (Unless that's changed now.) So I'd guess that the choice of shows is less driven by ratings and therefore not as dependent on how many people like/dislike it?

There's no accounting for taste though, I hate daytime soap operas but I have co-worker who schedule their lunch breaks so they can sit up in the employee lounge and watch their favorite soap. D:

Little britain

[dr-dgo.livejournal.com]

BBC America shows Little Britain on a regular basis. Have watched it once or twice, will go do something else if my wife wants to watch it for some reason. Have never seen the first show. Liked Hex, or a least what I saw of it. Did not think that it was too kind to Christianity or God however (typical intellectual fare). Dr Who episodes are seen sooner on the Scifi channel than they are on BBC America. I do like to watch the news, as it does give a non american perspective on the world (still liberal however).