I watched the 1 hour "Wheel" specials they did.  It only aired on Saturdays.   They were...okay.  You could tell the contestants weren't exactly familiar with how the game worked.  I'd like to see the UK Jeopardy  version though

Stephen Fry hosts the UK version of Jeopardy - he hosted the BBC's QI for years and is Hugh Laurie's former comedy partner (A Bit of Fry and Laurie) as well as a comic actor (Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster, Melchett in Blackadder), author and public intellectual.

I'm not sure how long this has been available on Rogers Cable,
but BLUE ANT MEDIA has the rights to 
BBC FIRST CANADA.
There, one can watch episodes of both Wheel & Jeopardy UK.  
No UK ads though. It's a channel with 100% Canadian ads on the break, which sucks, but BAM deserves to earn a return on their investment, I suppose...

As noted in the original post, they air next Sunday (Sept. 22nd) starting at 8 PM.

British TV seems to dislike daily programs.

Looking at Wikipedia, there have only been 20 episodes of the British Jeopardy! and 8 of the British Wheel of Fortune. Both shows entire runs have already aired in the UK.

Jeopardy! host Stephen Fry also hosted a revived Australian version of Jeopardy! as well. I did see a clip of that somewhere on Youtube, but it seems to have disappeared.

Binson Echorec wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

Sort of dulls the criticism about CBC producing a Canadian variation of Family Feud.

Not really, though. Brits can't just flip on a channel and watch the US versions the way we can.
 

Actually I was wrong, ITV in the UK produced the current versions of Jeopardy and Wheel Of Fortune.  BBC First runs the shows in Canada, and CHCH will as well beginning on September 22nd. 

Haven't seen the Jeopardy sample yet, but I did watch Wheel Of Fortune UK out of curiosity.

What a mess that show was. 

Graham Norton was unctuous as the host and the audience yelling "Ooooh!" every single time someone spun the wheel was so phony it was hard to take. Obviously, they were told to do it, and it became very grating. 

And one more thing, although I'm sure it's very British. Two of the contestants insisted on pronouncing the letter "H" as "Haich." It just sounded weird. 

I'm not a big fan of the show, so I won't be watching again, but even less so after seeing that mess from England. And oh yeah, I didn't miss the lack of a "Vanna White" for one second. I found it to be a terrible interpretation of an American-originated game show. But I'm glad I at least satisfied my curiosity to see how they did it over there.

Same as Binson, I watch about 20 minutes of each show.  I agree they seemed to be the debut program for both British versions.  They will be better in a couple of weeks.  All game shows and hosts get more relaxed after the first few shows. 

I liked the set of the Wheel of Fortune, and did like the way the studio audience was part of the program visually.  Camera work was much more lively than what we see over here.   The Jeopardy set wasn't as extravagant, and looked a bit cheap.

Graham Norton hopefully will relax a bit, he was kind of jumpy and seemed a bit nervous.  I expected the UK versions of the show to be a little different and they were.  Stephen Fry the host on Jeopardy I found interesting.
 
He was very chatty and the show had a much slower pace than the US version.  I guess since the UK program is an hour, the host and contestants have more time to talk.  Some won't like this but I found it funny when out of the blue Stephen would comment or talk a little about the question or answer and even talk to the contestant about it.   Different, but I am sure not for everyone since it slows the pace of the program.

Apparently, this is the fourth try at Jeopardy for British TV.  The show for whatever reason has never been a hit in the UK.  I don't know if the US versions of Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy are widely available or even watched in Britain.  

Last edited by paterson1 (September 23, 2024 12:30 pm)