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Two shows on opposite sides of the Atlantic can be compared with each other.

Typically, the older show is remade on the other side of The Pond. Most often, a UK show is remade in the US. In the case of foreign reality or game shows, this is because they are not usually aired by US commercial networks, and this allows American audiences to directly participate by becoming eligible contestants.

Shows that spread to even more countries become Multi National Shows.

Examples of Trans-Atlantic Equivalent include:


Film & TV[]

  • Kenny vs. Spenny (Canada)/Ed vs. Spencer (UK)/Elton vs. Simon (Germany)/Frank Vs. Girard (Quebec): Two friends compete in bizarre competitions; the loser suffers a humiliation.
  • Man About the House (UK)/ Three's Company (US): Buffoon fakes homosexuality to room with two women.
    • Robin's Nest (UK)/ Three's A Crowd (US): The buffoon and his girlfriend run a bistro.
    • George & Mildred (UK)/ The Ropers (US): The buffoon's former landlord and landlady try to get ahead in society.
  • One Foot in the Grave (UK)/ Cosby (US): Curmudgeonly older man deals with retirement.
  • Changing Rooms (UK) / Trading Spaces (US)/ Tapetenwechsel (Germany): Neighbors remodel each others' homes.
  • The Office (UK) / The Office (US) / Stromberg (Germany)/ Le Bureau (France} / La Job (Quebec) / La Ofis (Chile): Mockumentary style Work Com.
    • And apparently, Russian and Israeli versions are on the way. Ricky Gervais will never have to work again.
  • Cracker (UK) / Cracker (US): Defective Detective / Profiler crime drama (The US version is known as Fitz in the UK)
  • Fawlty Towers (UK) / Amanda's (US) / Payne (US): Quirky staff runs hotel.
  • Max Headroom: Twenty Minutes Into The Future (UK)/ Max Headroom (US): Reporter uncovers scandal aided by his computer counterpart.
  • Scrapheap Challenge (UK) / Junkyard Wars (US): Engineers compete to build machines out of found objects.
    • To confuse things further, the US distributor of Scrapheap Challenge retitled it Junkyard Wars.
  • Till Death Us Do Part (UK) / All in The Family (US) / Ein Herz und eine Seele (Germany): Bigoted misogynist lives with socialist son-in-law and long-suffering wife.
  • Steptoe and Son (UK)/Sanford and Son (US): The adventures of father and son junkyard merchants.
  • Aktenzeichen XY... Ungelöst ("File XY... Unsolved", Germany)/ Crimewatch UK (UK)/ Americas Most Wanted (US): Enlisting millions of viewers to help find fugitives the police can't.
  • Family Feud (US) / Family Fortunes (UK) / Familienduell (Germany): Game Show where two families try to guess the most popular answers to survey questions.
  • Britain's Got Talent / America's Got Talent/ Das Supertalent (Germany): Talent competition involving three judges who can buzz people off.
  • Golden Girls (US) / Brighton Belles (UK): Four older women share a house.
  • Mad About You (US) / Loved By You (UK): Newlywed couple in the big city.
  • Hollywood Squares (US) / Celebrity Squares (UK): Quiz show with celebrities in a giant tic-tac-toe/noughts-and-crosses board.
  • Keep It In The Family (UK) / Too Close for Comfort (US)
  • Mind Your Language (UK) / What A Country (US)
  • Whose Line Is It Anyway??: improvisational comedy (same format and similar games on both sides of The Pond)
    • Later series of the UK version were filmed in the US- if anything, it was probably just a change of host rather than a remake
  • Life On Mars (UK) / Life On Mars (US) / Present-day police detective is transported to 1973.
  • Saturday Night Live (US) / Saturday Live and Friday Night Live (UK) / RTL Samstag Nacht (Germany): Subversive sketch show with young comedians.
  • Whos the Boss (US) / The Upper Hand (UK): Male sportsman becomes housekeeper to successful businesswoman.
  • Eleventh Hour (UK) / Eleventh Hour (US): A scientist and a government agent solve cases of scientific advancements in the wrong hands.
  • Coupling (UK) / Coupling (US): Six friends are involved in ever-shifting (apart from the two leads) sexual relationships.
    • There was also a Greek Coupling. According to Steven Moffat "It lasted longer than the American version, so shut up."
  • Alien (US) / Marco Polo (Norway): A space ship crew comes across an alien planet, and pick up an alien stowaway who begins killing them. The main difference is that, in the Norwegian miniseries, the alien turned out to be sympathetic. The series was actually aired before Alien
  • Everybody Loves Raymond (US) / Everybody Loves Kostya (Russia) : Creator Phil Rosenthal mas a comedic documentary, Exporting Raymond about the process.
  • Law & Order (US) / Law & Order: UK (UK): Cops and lawyers.
    • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit / Закон и порядок: отдел оперативных расследований (Russia): Similar format dealing with sex crimes.
    • Law & Order: Criminal Intent (US) / Paris Enquêtes Criminelles (France) / Закон и порядок: Преступный Умысел (Russia): Similar format dealing with high profile cases, and also showing the persepective of the criminals.
  • Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?? (US)/ Are You Smarter Than A Ten Year Old? (UK)/ Sei Più Bravo Di Un Ragazzino Di Quinta? (ITA) / Das weiß doch jedes Kind! (GER): Contestants answer questions against a panel of kids.
  • I've Got a Secret (US) /I've Got a Secret (UK)/ Please Guess My Secret (Japan): Unlike the UK versions of American Game Shows running at the time in the 50s/60s, the Japanese just created their own version with no assist from (or royalties to) Goodson Todman Productions.
  • Being Human (UK) / Being Human Remake (US): A ghost, a werewolf, and a vampire try to live together as normal people.
  • Het Huis Anubis (Netherlands) / Das Haus Anubis (Germany) / House of Anubis (US): A children's show about a group of friends trying to figure out a mystery their boarding school holds.
  • Skins (U.K.) / Skins (U.S.): Darker and Edgier teen drama.
  • Men Behaving Badly (U.K.) / It's A Man's World (U.S.): A sitcom about 'typical lads'.
  • Edge of Darkness (U.K.) / Edge Of Darkness (U.S.): A conspiracy thriller about nuclear cover-ups. Incidentally, made by the same director, Martin Campbell.
  • This is Your Life (U.S.)/This is Your Life (U.K.)/This is Your Life (Australia): The host surprises its celebrity guest with a "book" taking them through their life and a host of people who have played important roles in the celebrity's life. Even though it originated as a concept in the U.S., it lasted for a much longer period of time in the U.K.
  • The Thick of It (UK) / Veep (US, forthcoming): The raw, seedy, spin-dominated, and Cluster F-Bomb-dominated side of politics, as seen from a Government Agency of Fiction (UK) or the Vice President's office (US).
  • Top Gear (UK) / Top Gear (US): Three hosts chat about cars and driving them. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Expedition: Robinson (SWE) / Survivor (US)
  • Hustle (UK) / Leverage (US) : A team of anti-heroes steals from evil rich people who deserve to be stolen from.
  • Episodes is a series centered around the very concept.
  • WΔZ (UK)/Scar 3D (US)
  • Transcontinental variant: Mister Rogers Neighborhood (US)/ Mr. Dressup (Canada): Justified in that both stars worked together in a Canadian precursor of the former show before Rogers returned to the US and his understudy Ernie "Mr. Dressup" Coombs decided to stay and create his own show.
  • Heroes (US) / Misfits (UK): Sci Fi series about ordinary people who discover they have superpowers
  • Jersey Shore (US) / Geordie Shore (UK) / The GC (NZ/AU)
  • The BBC (UK) / PBS (US)
  • Legends of the Hidden Temple (US)/ Jungle Run (UK)
  • Ghosts(UK)/Ghosts(US): A young couple inherits a mansion inhabited by ghosts.
  • Drunk History (U.S.)/ Drunk History(U.K.)/ Drunk History(Mexico) / Drunk History(Australia): Drunk comedians explain events in history.
  • Walk on the Wild Side (UK) / When Nature Calls (U.S.) : Comedy shows that involve the dubbing of natural history footage.

Radio[]


Music[]

  • Rhino Records (US) / Beggars Banquet Records, XL Recordings, Virgin Records, and Rough Trade (UK)
  • Factory Records (UK) / Sub Pop (US)

Artists[]

Genres[]

Other[]

  • In general languages use different words to call something. Someone who speaks Spanish will call a cat "gato" while a person in Germany will call it "Katze", etc.
  • Ford Model T (US) / Volkswagen Beetle (Germany) / Citroën 2CV (France): Basic cars conceived to make motorcars affordable to regular people for the first time in their countries, with the Model T starting production in 1908 and the Beetle and 2CV in the 1940s. Both the Beetle and 2CV were in production for a long time, with the Beetle ending production in 2003 and the 2CV in 1990.
  • BP (everywhere else) / BHP (Malaysia)
  • Lays potato chips (U.S.) / Walkers potato crisps (U.K.) / Smith's (Australia) / Bluebird (New Zealand)
  • Schick (U.S.) / Wilkinson Sword (U.K.): shaving products
  • Nordstrom (U.S.) / Harrods (U.K.): Upscale department stores
  • Tim Hortons (Canada) / Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme (U.S.)/Greggs(UK)/Mister Donut(Japan): Doughnut and coffee chains.
  • Starbucks (U.S.) / Costa Coffee (U.K.) / Second Cup Coffee (Canada): Hipster coffee chains
  • Walmart or Target (US) / Tesco (UK) / Carrefour (France) / Continente (Portugal) / Target (Australia; not related to the US company) / The Warehouse (New Zealand) / Makro (Holland) / Aeon BIG (Japan) / Lotus (Thailand) / Giant (Malaysia): "Big-box" superstores.
  • Dollar Tree (US) / Poundland (UK) / Dealz (Ireland, Spain, the Isle of Man and Poland): Discount variety stores that employ(ed) a single price point, specifically one of the local unit of currency.
  • Panera Bread (US) / Pret a Manger (UK): Sandwich shops with organic ingredients.

Crime[]

  • Dennis Nilsen (UK) / Jeffrey Dahmer (US) / Zé Borrego (Portugal): Serial killers who lured homosexual men to their flats/apartments, strangled, and dismembered them after a period living with their bodies propped up. All three were themselves gay.
  • Fred and Rosemary West (UK) / Gerald and Charlene Gallego (US) / Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka (Canada): Married couples who abducted, raped, tortured and killed young girls together.
  • Villisca Axe Murders (US) / Hinterkaifeck Murders (Germany): High profile unsolved familicides from the early 20th century, in which a two-handed cutting tool was used as the murder weapon, and prone to paranormal embellishment.
  • Gary Ridgway (US) / Saeed Hanaei (Iran): Religious serial killers who lured prostitutes and killed them because they saw them as temptresses.
  • Jimmy Savile (UK) / Bill Cosby (US) / Rolf Harris (Australia): Beloved entertainers who had their careers destroyed by sexual assault/child molestation scandals (posthumously in the case of Savile).
  • Jimmy Savile (UK) / Harvey Weinstein (US): Media moguls who were outed as sexual predators, causing a widespread domino effect that brought down other predators.
  • Dick Turpin (UK)/ Jesse James (US): Outlaws who are mythologized as chivalrous Robin Hood type folk heroes despite actually being violent thugs in real life.
  • Gordon Cummins (UK) / Paul Ogorzow (Germany): Serial rapist-killers that used the wartime blackouts of World War II as their cover.
  • Marcel Petiot (France) / Hubert Pilčík (Czechia): Serial killers using a fake escape network to lure their victims.
  • Jack The Ripper (UK) / Servant Girl Annihilator (US) / Bochum Lust Murderer (Germany): Unidentified 1880s serial killers of women who stabbed their victims and attracted unprecedented media and police attention in their countries.
    • There was also the ''Sacamantecas'' in 1870s Spain and the South-East Ripper in 1890s France. Same modus operandi, but they were caught.
  • Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan (Italy) / Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs (Ukraine) / Academy Maniacs (Russia): Packs of teenage thrill killers.
  • Jesse Pomeroy (US) / Cayetano Santos Godino (Argentina) / Mary Bell (UK): Serial killers of children that were in their early adolescence when they committed their crimes.
  • Thomas Watt Hamilton (UK) / Adam Lanza, Salvador Ramos (US): Men who shot up a school filled with very young children.
  • Thomas Watt Hamilton (UK) / Martin Bryant (Australia) / Nikolas Cruz (US) / Brenton Tarrant (New Zealand) / Marc Lépine, Gabriel Wortman (Canada) / Anders Behring Breivik (Norway): Mass shooters whose massacres caused a sea change in public attitudes on gun laws in their respective countries (though less so in the case of Cruz).
  • Lee Rigby (UK) / Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbetts (US): Young whites who were murdered by men of color and subsequently became martyrs for right-wing movements.
  • Jo Cox (UK) / Heather Heyer (US): Young white women who were killed by white nationalists and subsequently became martyrs for left-wing movements.
  • Profumo Affair (UK) / Watergate (US): Seemingly minor political scandals at first that culminated in the downfall of a Prime Minister/President.
  • Michael Swango (US) / Harold Shipman (UK): Serial killer doctors who poisoned their patients.
  • Lisbon Ripper (Portuga and maybe the Netherlands, Czechia, Denmark and Belgium) / New Bedford Highway Killer (US): unidentified serial killers who targeted women prostitutes in the last two decades of the 20th century, using the same methods, and remain unidentified to this day. May actually have been the same person.
  • Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard (US) / Wagatha Christie (UK)
  • Timothy McVeigh= (US) / Anders Behring Breivik (Norway): Far-right antigovernment extremists who carried out devestating attacks against federal targets and remain a source of inspiration for other far-right terrorists.

Politics[]

  • Margaret Thatcher (UK) / Ronald Reagan (US): 1980s New Right leaders
  • Tony Blair (UK) / Bill Clinton (US): 1990s Third Way leaders
  • George W. Bush (US) / David Cameron (UK) / John Howard (AU) / Stephen Harper (CA) / John Key (NZ): post-Third Way conservatives
  • Dennis Kucinich (US) / Ken Livingstone (UK): left-wing figurehead
    • Most modern British Prime Ministers often (but not always) have carried similar intents and/or have faced similar challenges as contemporary U.S. Presidents:
      • The Ur Example might be Clement Attlee, who carried out a massive nationalization program. At the same time Harry Truman attempted this on a much smaller scale. Both administrations were widely criticized for the supposed infiltration of Communist elements.
      • Harold Macmillan and Dwight D Eisenhower both were military men (from different wars, anyway) who led their nations during the post-war economic boom. Both would also be remembered as social moderates.
      • Harold Wilson deliberately presented himself as the British John F Kennedy in the 1964 election, later adopting a more restrained style akin to Lyndon Johnson. The numerous social policies enacted during the late 1960s were compared to the American "Great Society" plans (although Wilson was more successful in this aspect). Both Wilson and Johnson faced economic problems and social turmoil because of the Vietnam War. Later on, Wilson's 1974-76 government dealt with stagflation like the one faced by Gerald Ford.
      • Edward Heath and Richard Nixon were famous for being particularly stubborn and forceful, which led to their downfalls in 1974 (although for very different reasons; Heath was voted out after an humiliating coal strike, while Nixon resigned because of Watergate).
      • James Callaghan and Jimmy Carter were relatively conservative men in an era when left-wing politics were quickly shifting towards social liberalism. Both were also staunch believers in trade unionism and led their countries through economic crises and were voted out after massive PR failures.
      • Margaret Thatcher introduced numerous policies aimed at reducing state intervention of the economy, enacted a tough stance on the Soviet Union and cracked down on the excesses of the social liberalism of the 60s and 70s, all also closely associated with Ronald Reagan.
      • John Major and George HW Bush led the process of the dismantling of the Soviet bloc, but were unable to cope with the quick and drastic societal changes of the 1990s.
      • Tony Blair championed a market-friendly version of left-wing politics popularized by Bill Clinton after a long string of election losses. Blair and Clinton's successor George W. Bush illustrated the political pragmatism of the post-Cold War consensus, dealt with important terrorist attacks, and were ultimately marked by their support of the Iraq War.
      • David Cameron, much like GWB, embodied a technocratic brand of conservatism that appealed to centrists. And like the first-term Barack Obama, his administration attempted to foster social change. Both had to deal with a hard-right political movement, with Cameron being unseated by the UK's movement. Obama served a full two terms, but he began his presidency with the Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and ended it with Republicans in control of both (the GOP took the House of Representatives in 2010 and the Senate in 2014).
      • Theresa May, much like the second-term Barack Obama, attempted to appease the widespread opposition to previous policies, only to become regarded as utterly toothless in the face of populism.
      • Boris Johnson and Donald Trump not only are outspoken, fair-haired New Yorkers,(Johnson was born in NYC, but his family returned to the UK when he was three months old and Johnson last lived in the US as a 5-year-old.)but they both came to power riding the wave of hard-right populism under controversial circumstances. Both also have a long-standing reputation for bigotry and corruption. Both came to power despite their own blatant flaws by beating an equally controverisal opponent. Trump even endorsed Boris Johnson during the election and it was on his orders that fellow populist politician Nigel Farage agreed to help Boris Johnson win the election. They have also attempted to overrule their legislative branches to great scorn. Last but not least, both were infected by the COVID-19 virus while in office in 2020 and both were widely criticised for their hands-off response to the pandemic, with their countries being among the worst hit in the world as a result. Although to be fair, Trump's response was generally considered much worse than Johnson's; the latter took the pandemic seriously after his brush with the illness whereas the former was voted out of office afterwards.
      • Liz Truss and Joe Biden are soft-spoken if somewhat gaffe-prone politicians compared to their loud and bombastic predecessors and became leaders when their countries are face economic problems such as inflation, food shortages and rising energy prices exacerbated by the Russo-Ukrainian War. Furthermore, both Truss and Biden used to hold centrist views when they worked under more moderate members of their respective parties. That having been said, they each diverged from their centrist roots in different ways with Biden embracing government spending and public projects of the Left while Truss doubled-down on Neoliberal trickle down economics of the Right.
    • (Pre-Trump) Republican Party or Blue Dog Coalition of the Democratic Party (US) / Conservative Party (UK) / Conservative Party of Canada / Christian Democratic Union of Germany / Liberal Party of Australia / Liberal Democratic Party (Japan): Center-right political parties often referred to by a shorthand nickname (GOP for the US party, Tories for the UK and Canada parties)
    • New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party (US) / Blairite wing of the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats (UK) / Liberal Party of Canada: Centrist-liberal political parties.
    • Progressive wing of the Democratic Party (US) / Labour Party (UK) / New Democratic Party (Canada) / Social Democratic Party (Germany) / Australian Labor Party / Democratic Party (Japan): Center-left political parties.noteThe UK and US parties have "hard left" factions, but they're in the minority. Far-left people in the US either tend to support third parties or abstain from electoral politics altogether./note
    • Trumpist wing of the Republican Party (US) / Democratic Unionist Party, UK Independence Party, Pro-Brexit wing of the Conservative Party (UK) / People's Party of Canada / Alternative for Germany / Fidesz (Hungary) / People Power Party (South Korea): Right-wing populist parties.
    • Barack Obama (US) / Justin Trudeau (Canada) / Emmanuel Macron (France) / Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand) / Leo Varadkar (Ireland) / Sanna Marin (Finland): Younger 2010s-era liberal politicians which attracted massive attention early in their terms.
    • Donald Trump (US) / Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) / Yoon Suk-yeol (South Korea) / Boris Johnson (UK) / Shinzo Abe (Japan) / Viktor Orbán (Hungary) / Narendra Modi (India) / Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel) / Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines) / Nayib Bukele (El Salvador) / Scott Morrison (Australia) / Georgia Meloni (Italy): 21st-century hard-right/ultra-nationalist populist world leaders.
      • Also Trump and Silvio Berlusconi (Italy): Both could be described as follows: "Flamboyant tycoon who used populist politics to become the leader of his country." The similarities between the two were noticed long before Trump moved into politics. A 2005 biography of Berlusconi compared him to the then-host of The Apprentice. A third figure, Benito Mussolini, could be described likewise replacing "journalist" for "tycoon", and has also been compared to the former US President.
    • Brexit (UK) / Elections of Donald Trump (US), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) and Nayib Bukele (El Salvador): Right-wing nationalist/reactionary movements that, while successful at the ballot box, had Earth-shattering consequences and did more harm than good to right-wing causes.
    • Joe Biden (US) / Latter-premiership Justin Trudeau (CA) / Second-term Emmanuel Macron (France) / Olaf Scholz (Germany) / Anthony Albanese (AU): Soft-spoken, if rather bland elected left-centrist political figures who arrived into office mostly as a post-COVID reaction against the divisive populism of the late 2010s.
    • King Charles III (UK) / King Emeritus Juan Carlos I (Spain): Monarchs mostly noted for being boorish and all-around unpleasant, aside from becoming gossip fodder because of extramarital scandals, which in the latter's case has been a constant issue among the Bourbons and not being very liked among the populace compared to other members of their respective houses (particularly the late Princess Diana and current Queen Consort Letizia for each respective house).

Technology[]


Education[]

History[]

  • The Gilded Age (U.S.)/The Victorian Era (U.K.)/La Belle Epoque (France)/The Wilhelmine Period (Germany)/The Meiji Restoration (Japan)/Post-Confederation Canada(Canada): Golden ages at the tail end of the 19th Century with industrialisation, optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, colonial expansion, and technological, scientific, and cultural innovations.
  • There are a lot of parallel's between Imperial China and Rome at the end of the 1st millennium BC and the beginning of the 1st millennium AD:
    • The Zhou Dynasty has a lot of similarities with the Kingdom of Rome as both were dynasties that would establish China & Rome but both would end with scandal from the final empire and would create a state of quasi-perpetual war throughout its existence.
    • Qin Shi Huang and Julius Caesar grew up under a nation under constant war, led great armies, expanded to much territory, had brutal punishments for prisoners of war, and died tragically due to their own hubris (However Caesar died after being murdered by other senators however, while Qin Shi Huang died after drinking mercury). After their deaths, there would be civil war and infighting would continue.
    • The Roman Empire & The Han Dynasty were great empires uniting many different kingdoms run by one emperor who would often get overthrown or killed by another. They also brought technology and a growth in money. Eventually the emperor would be overthrown and end with the empire split into different kingdoms.
    • Both empires faced nomadic groups from central Asia who threatened and penetrated their boundaries. Indeed, the Huns, who invaded Europe, and the Xiongnu, who invaded China, may have belonged to the same ethnic group. Both empires settled the "Barbarians" near their borders and enlisted them in the imperial armies. In both cases, the Barbarians came to hold great power. Ultimately, however, they dismembered the Roman Empire while they were absorbed by the Chinese.
    • Both empires suffered their greatest challenges in, confronting simultaneously the strains of overextension and the subsequent internal revolts that triggered by the costs.
    • In both empires, during times of upheaval, peasants sought to evade taxes and conscription by finding refuge as tenants on large, landed estates. In times when imperial government was weak, the largest of these estates challenged the power of the central government.
  • The Edwardian Era (U.K.)/The Progressive Era (U.S.): An era that brought major progressive reforms and would increase the rights of women.
  • The American Revolution (U.S.)/The French Revolution (France): Revolutions that are the result of people's issues with the monarch, resulting with independence from said monarch, though the French one did not last as long.
  • Nazi Germany (Germany)/Fascist Italy (Italy)/Imperial Japan (Japan): Countries controlled by authoritarian governments that invade other countries and commit war crimes.
  • The Second Great Awakening(U.S.)/The Reformation(Europe): A period of the formation of new religious movements and denominations, as well as a rise in religious persecution.
  • The Roaring Twenties & The Great Depression (US)/ Interwar Britain (UK)/Années folles (France): The period between the first and second World Wars that experience major economic prosperity and then later a major economic depression.