I'm American (and hated the trailer, incidentally). Allow me to shed some light on the awfulness.
Are our accents that confusing?
Actually, yes. LoM is chock full of slang, too. I watched each episode twice to get all of the dialog, and visited The Annotated Martian to puzzle out the slang and Brit references. Most TV viewers won't do that
( ... )
Let's not forget also that Moonlight, a show on CBS that just got canned, was drawing about 8 million viewers--and that wasn't considered sufficient to justify keeping it around. According to 30 seconds of research on Wikipedia, Life on Mars was considered a big hit in the UK with an average audience of about 6.8 million (and maybe as high as 7.1 million on at least one occasion).
If it drew the same numbers in the US, it might be considered a success on the CW network--but not on CBS, NBC or ABC, and probably not on FOX either.
Yes, respective population can make a difference, but my point was that a show drawing considerably more eyes than LoM did at its peak would still be viewed as a flop on the major networks here in the US. Much larger potential audience, yes--but also much higher expectations from the networks. It's possible for an Americanized version of a show to be a hit here (All in the Family, for instance)--but it's not guaranteed even when the show is done well.
I haven't seen the pilot or teasers for the US version of Life on Mars, but I'll trust the consensus here that it sucks. I tried the original Life on Mars but it didn't grab me. I am a fan of Red Dwarf and the attempt at a US version of that sucked horrifically by all accounts (again, I never saw it). I don't hold high hopes for this either.
Are our accents that confusing?
Actually, yes. LoM is chock full of slang, too. I watched each episode twice to get all of the dialog, and visited The Annotated Martian to puzzle out the slang and Brit references. Most TV viewers won't do that ( ... )
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If it drew the same numbers in the US, it might be considered a success on the CW network--but not on CBS, NBC or ABC, and probably not on FOX either.
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I haven't seen the pilot or teasers for the US version of Life on Mars, but I'll trust the consensus here that it sucks. I tried the original Life on Mars but it didn't grab me. I am a fan of Red Dwarf and the attempt at a US version of that sucked horrifically by all accounts (again, I never saw it). I don't hold high hopes for this either.
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