It’s one of US television’s most iconic shows.

After celebrating 50 years in 2025, Saturday Night Live has finally made a British version with Sky One’s SNL UK hitting screens.

It’s not the first show to cross the pond and be remade for a different audience. Some have gone well, perhaps even surpassing the original whereas others have been complete disasters.

BBC Bitesize takes a look at popular UK and US remakes of hit shows – as well as some stinkers.

The Office

There’s perhaps no better example of a hit television show being remade for a different audience than US network NBC’s version of The Office.

The original British series first hit screens in 2001 and became an instant classic – but while it was delighting audiences on BBC Two, it also made an impact around the world, in particular in the United States.

As the show’s creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, wrapped up the British version after two series and a Christmas special, there was significant interest in the US in adapting the show for American audiences.

Although wary – as a number of US versions of British shows had been cancelled after a single episode – Gervais and Merchant agreed. They worked with King of the Hill creator and former SNL writer Greg Daniels to get a US version underway for the NBC network.

It didn’t get off to the best of starts – the first episode was a virtual carbon copy of the British show, only changing a few key names. But the show started to stand out on its own, winning over critics, if not audiences.

The lack of viewers put the show at risk of cancellation before an unlikely saviour – the iPod. A video version had been launched along with the iTunes Store, allowing young audiences to download episodes of the show. Traditional viewing figures may have been lower than expected, but on demand purchases were sky high.

The show went on to make 201 episodes over nine series, far more than the original show. We’ll leave debates over which version is the superior one for another time…

Catchphrase

There are far fewer examples of successful American shows being adapted for British television – and the vast majority of them are game shows or reality TV.

Gladiators, The Apprentice, Wheel of Fortune and Fun House have all become hit shows on these shores, having originally begun as American TV formats.

Another show that began in the US and moved to the UK is Catchphrase.

The antics of Mr Chips and the first host Roy Walker was first shown on ITV in January 1986 – but its premiere came two days after the final version of the original US Catch Phrase broadcast its final show.

Just 65 episodes of the US Catch Phrase were made, running from September 1985 to January 1986. The show established the format of solving animated puzzles that has become familiar to British audiences – even inventing the character Mr Chips, albeit the American version was known as Herbie.

But the show couldn’t find an audience in the US and was axed after 13 weeks. Meanwhile, the British version proved much more popular. Roy Walker hosted 16 series of the show – more than 220 episodes – before being replaced by Nick Weir in 2000, who only lasted a couple of years, not helped by the fact that he broke his foot walking down the stairs in one of his first shows.

Former Blue Peter presenter Mark Curry then took over before the show was rested in 2004 – with ITV bringing it back under Stephen Mulhern’s helm nine years later.

Us & Them

US television – The Office aside – hasn’t had much luck remaking British sitcoms.

Pilots of Spaced, The IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, Peep Show and others have been shot – and then quietly forgotten about with the quintessential British nature of the shows being lost in translation with the US versions.

So it’s not too much of a surprise than an all-American Gavin & Stacey didn’t prove a hit.

After three series and a Christmas special in the UK, an adaptation was ordered by US TV network Fox in 2013. While creators Ruth Jones and James Corden were listed as executive producers for the show, they weren’t involved in writing the American version.

The signs were there early on that this wouldn’t be a classic. Firstly, Fox changed their mind on the number of episodes in the first series, from 13 to seven.

Then, after the episodes had been filmed – with Gilmore Girls star Alexis Bledel playing Stacey and Jason Ritter playing Gavin – Fox quietly revealed they wouldn’t be airing the show at all.

In 2018, Us & Them landed on a US streaming service and it was clear why Fox lost confidence in the show. The trademark humour of the British version was missing, as was the fact that Gavin and Stacey both lived in significantly different places, not just geographically but also culturally.

US & Them told the story of a long-distance relationship between characters in New York City and Pennsylvania, but with none of the charm of Jones and Corden’s version. And while the US show never got to play its storylines out, it also hinted at the American version of Smithy – known as Archie – being the one to end up with Stacey. Not tidy at all.

This article was published in March 2026