Downton Abbey - America gets the dumbed down version!

Biggins

Downton Abbey - America gets the dumbed down version!

• Eight-hour ITV series slashed to six for the States
• Inheritance story*line simplified for Americans

Its intricately detailed plot and sumptuous production values, with lingering shots of the magnificent stately home, made Downton Abbey the TV hit of last year.

Unsurprisingly, the lavish period drama has now been snapped up by an American network - although it seems the beautifully nuanced portrait of pre-First World War upper-class life could prove just a little too complex for the trans-atlantic audience.

For in the land of the notoriously short attention span, TV executives have taken a knife to the artfully crafted series, slashing its running time and simplifying the plotline for fear viewers will be left baffled.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1343388/Downton-Abbey-downsized--hours-American-TV-executives-fear-intricate-plot-baffle-U-S-viewers.html

I can understand to an extent why they do this but god, instead of putting the America people down, maybe the TV executives could try raise the audiences intelligence by leaving it as it is and educate/inform them on such English or European ways?

American daftness yet again!

Syferus

The BBC saw fit to slash the first three episodes of Rome into two hours, so this sort of behaviour has little unique to America.

ashyle

Ridiculous. I know some Americans that download it, obsessive over it, they are. Anybody into period drama (American or not), is going to understand the 'world' of Downton Abbey (or at least go along with it)

(I always pronounce it Down Town Abbey by mistake.)

pegasus1

stupid tv exec's....

do they not realise that america produces some of the finest and complex tv shows such as the wire and well everything HBO....

they should show the americans what we..sorry *cough* the uk the full capability of the writer's and not slash everything to pieces

Gooseberry

probably more Daily Mail daftness....

http://www.televisionaryblog.com/2011/01/in-defense-of-downton-abbey-or-dont.html

sporina

what station is this on?

Einhard

Syferus wrote: »

The BBC saw fit to slash the first three episodes of Rome into two hours, so this sort of behaviour has little unique to America.

AFAIR though, the BBC did so because they realised that most British people would be pretty familiar with the setting, both the time and place, and cut out all the basic exposition that the Americans got. In the case of Rome, the extended version was the dumbed down version.

mike65

Quite!

It shown on PBS which is supposed to be the intelligent channel, I doubt HBO or Showtime would have cut it to make it less dense.

Biggins

Glad to see the show back on air but by god the number of adverts and ITV self promotions was absolutely crazy. It got unreal. Are they trying in deliberateness to ruin the shows continuity and pace? Pure stupidity!

I see the media have also picked up on it. many have officially complained it seems: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2039375/Downton-Abbey-One-minute-adverts-programme.html

...in the first programme alone there were 23 minutes of promotion with only 67 minutes of the drama – that’s one minute of adverts for every three of Downton Abbey.

Lirange

mike65 wrote: »

Quite!

It shown on PBS which is supposed to be the intelligent channel, I doubt HBO or Showtime would have cut it to make it less dense.

PBS did not cut the programme. They just aired it without adverts. The Americans are the lucky ones.