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Post by Mighty Attack Tribble on Oct 4, 2022 9:23:39 GMT -5
Seinfeld started in a decent enough slot in the UK (9pm) on BBC2, but didn't do very well there that it got shunted to a later time period (I think even 11.30pm), aren't the early seasons considered the weakest, maybe a lot of the audience saw them and didn't understand the hype? Likely. Remember, over here shows get six episodes per season, so everything pretty much has to hit the ground running to gain traction with audiences to avoid being cancelled. While Seinfeld didn't have to worry about cancellation, and the early seasons had far fewer episodes than a regular American show, the fact that it wasn't an instant success is quite apparent due to it being moved to a death slot. It did get a regular 8:30/9pm slot on Sky One and did respectable numbers there, but was generally eclipsed by just about every other new US sitcom Sky showed. I'm pretty sure even The Nanny and Suddenly Susan wiped the floor with it.
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 4, 2022 9:28:02 GMT -5
My big take away from this thread is that I never realized how Seinfeld was not really popular at all in the UK in contrast to Friends.
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Post by Mighty Attack Tribble on Oct 4, 2022 9:41:33 GMT -5
My big take away from this thread is that I never realized how Seinfeld was not really popular at all in the UK in contrast to Friends. Not just the UK. Based on what little I've been able to dig up, it made very little impact anywhere outside North America.
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 4, 2022 9:54:48 GMT -5
My big take away from this thread is that I never realized how Seinfeld was not really popular at all in the UK in contrast to Friends. Not just the UK. Based on what little I've been able to dig up, it made very little impact anywhere outside North America. That's crazy to think about when put in the context. Especially since here in America it is pretty much treated as the iconic gold standard of sitcoms and likewise has been seen as a major influence since then.
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Oct 4, 2022 17:37:19 GMT -5
Not just the UK. Based on what little I've been able to dig up, it made very little impact anywhere outside North America. That's crazy to think about when put in the context. Especially since here in America it is pretty much treated as the iconic gold standard of sitcoms and likewise has been seen as a major influence since then. I think time slot had a lot to do with it. My friend from the UK said what everyone here is saying, it had a late time slot. He’d see it here and there, if he happened to be watching TV at that hour. Once he got to Canada he saw it a little more but it was always was preempted for baseball. Finally I just bought him all the DVDs and now it’s his favorite show ever.
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 4, 2022 17:38:45 GMT -5
That's crazy to think about when put in the context. Especially since here in America it is pretty much treated as the iconic gold standard of sitcoms and likewise has been seen as a major influence since then. I think time slot had a lot to do with it. My friend from the UK said what everyone here is saying, it had a late time slot. He’d see it here and there, if he happened to be watching TV at that hour. Once he got to Canada he saw it a little more but it was always was preempted for baseball. Finally I just bought him all the DVDs and now it’s his favorite show ever. Interesting, that could perhaps be the reason why.
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Oct 4, 2022 17:44:35 GMT -5
I think time slot had a lot to do with it. My friend from the UK said what everyone here is saying, it had a late time slot. He’d see it here and there, if he happened to be watching TV at that hour. Once he got to Canada he saw it a little more but it was always was preempted for baseball. Finally I just bought him all the DVDs and now it’s his favorite show ever. Interesting, that could perhaps be the reason why. It’s low quality and it’s from the DVDs, but you can check out How it all Began on YouTube. It’s very interesting. Seinfeld limped along until about The Contest episode before it exploded. NBC was never going to pick it up, one guy loved the show and as actually in charge of late night specials. He had two hours in his budget, so he bought 4 episodes of Seinfeld instead of a Bob Hope special. It got by on no one was watching, but the people who were watching loved the show and were a demographic NBC really wanted. Also bolstering they show was the fact both Larry and Jerry were willing to walk at any moment. So they tended to get their way at the end of the day, right up until they were powerful enough to get every last thing they wanted.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Oct 4, 2022 18:33:56 GMT -5
I can see Seinfeld struggling internationally. So much of the show was about a specific kind of New York culture (though the series was filmed in LA) that even those of us from outside that region had enough of a frame of reference to understand. But I can get jokes about Papaya King or George Steinbrener firing people not connecting with viewers outside North America.
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Post by HeyYo on Oct 4, 2022 19:48:05 GMT -5
From Eastern Canada. Seinfeld was on here but just seemed like every other show, same as Fresh Prince, Home Improvement, Frasier, etc. There were people that watched it but never met a mega fan from any age, it didn't seem any more popular than other regular shows.
Friends was massive here. I enjoyed it for what it was. You couldn't avoid it in my area. It was actually so big that for the finale my high school opened up the gymnasium that night and 1000 students watched it together on a huge projection screen. Other high schools did the same. They had popcorn and hot chocolate and it was a really cool event. You could hear a pin drop while the show was on. That's hard to do with 1000 high school students.
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Post by BorneAgain on Oct 4, 2022 20:47:26 GMT -5
Ironically the only international demographic that enjoyed Seinfeld more than Friends were the descendants of the Moops.
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Post by Loser troll. Please ban me on Oct 4, 2022 20:54:41 GMT -5
My big take away from this thread is that I never realized how Seinfeld was not really popular at all in the UK in contrast to Friends. Likely because it's a terrible comedy.
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Post by Mozenrath on Oct 4, 2022 20:56:31 GMT -5
I recall Seinfeld got huge over time, obviously, but I think Friends had an easier time to begin with in getting an audience, just, Seinfeld's peak was higher.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Oct 4, 2022 21:21:19 GMT -5
Ironically the only international demographic that enjoyed Seinfeld more than Friends were the descendants of the Moops. Some guy attacked the Bubble Boy!
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Post by Brandon Walsh is Insane. on Oct 5, 2022 0:38:39 GMT -5
Across its run, Friends averaged 23.6 million viewers, contrasted to Seinfeld's 26.6 million. Friends only hit #1 in Nielsens once during its entire run. From 1994 to 1998 (when it concluded its run), Seinfeld was always in the top two highest-ranked TV shows as per Nielsen, alongside ER, finishing as number one on two occasions. Credit: screenrant.com/friends-vs-seinfeld-rivalry-explained-winner/
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Post by newbombturk on Oct 5, 2022 1:18:53 GMT -5
Here in Belgium Seinfeld had a late night time slot while Friends was in prime time. Friends was a cultural juggernaut and never stopped having reruns. My 15, year old son knows and has watched it while barely anyone I've met who's younger than me has heard of Seinfeld.
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Post by Non Banjoble Tokens on Oct 5, 2022 1:29:53 GMT -5
Neither of them were as popular as Cheers. Ted Danson made $800,000 an episode.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Oct 5, 2022 2:01:30 GMT -5
God imagine being outdrawn by MAD About You Hell, throw in the British comedy shows and Seinfeld was way, way down on the ratings list. One can draw similar comparisons to Only Fools and Horses, which is generally considered the UK's best-loved sitcom but never found an audience in America. It's funny because I saw daytime repeats of Mad About You and King of Queens so often that it felt like a show that couldn't ever have been anything but syndicated
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Oct 5, 2022 4:41:12 GMT -5
Did people really watch these shows?
Like... I've met like one person in real life who is a fan of Friends.
But before her... Noone.
Like ever.
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Oct 5, 2022 6:24:49 GMT -5
Another UK perspective here, so it might have been different over there, but another thing that makes it seem like Friends was bigger was the merchandise.
At least here, you couldn't get away from it, posters, tshirts, books etc. there was a ton of merch you'd see all over the place. Maybe it's because it wasn't as big here so nothing was released, but I've never really seen much of that for Seinfeld, so if you're not specifically watching the show it's easier to not think about.
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Post by I'm Team Bayley and Indi on Oct 5, 2022 7:07:09 GMT -5
Did people really watch these shows? Like... I've met like one person in real life who is a fan of Friends. But before her... Noone. Like ever. Guess it's possible just the circles you where in because I knew loads of Friends fans particularly at its peak
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