Yep, quite a bit of online reaction to the first series of American Idol was all about "that British guy" and how he makes the show worth watching, it grew a lot more naturally. In the UK The Weakest Link simply started on daytime BBC Two in the middle of the summer holidays with little publicity and by the autumn school term everyone was talking about it.
I remember a documentary shown on the BBC about the show moving to the US, complete with outtakes of Anne telling contestants they'd won x-thousand pounds, only to abruptly correct herself to dollars.
The US version seemed very exciting because it felt quite a big thing for a little British quiz show to go to America, and Anne Robinson to come with it who we'd all seen on telly for many years. It was such big news that as well as the documentary, BBC1 showed the first US episode only a few days after it had been on in America, unscheduled one afternoon. Actually they showed quite a few of the early US episodes in the breaks between new episodes of the UK version, but the novelty wore off quite quickly.
As you say, it started very quietly. In fact it started the day after The People Versus had begun on ITV which had been massively hyped as the next Millionaire, and I don't think many people thought that of the two shows starting within 24 hours, the unheralded teatime BBC2 show would become a national talking point and worldwide hit and the big budget primetime ITV show would be a huge flop. But it took off really quickly, by the end of September everyone was talking about it, although it was helped by ITV having recently lost Home and Away, so they were flailing around a bit, and during the Olympics Neighbours was off air for two weeks as well. Then by the end of October it was in primetime, although it turned out to be very useful for BBC1 as that was when the news moved to ten but all the dramas were still fifty minutes long, and having a forty minute show in The Weakest Link was very helpful.
The show promised high expectations, but her style just was never right. I never understood her appeal or the show's appeal until a few years later I saw the original UK version on Youtube. She was much better in a place where people knew her and where the audience was more accustomed to her humor. I also think the show is much better without a distracting studio audience. If the shoe were on the other foot – if we sent you our most garish American host to present an overhyped game show – it probably would face a similar fate.
Well, that sort of happened in 2002 when the Beeb bought The Chair from NBC, and the original host came with it in John McEnroe. Of course we all knew John McEnroe already, and it wasn't his fault that it wasn't a success on either side of the Atlantic, it was a flawed and boring format. But I did enjoy watching John chatting with the contestants about their hobbies and where they lived, much as I like listening to him garbling British place names when he does the Wimbledon phone-ins on 5 Live.
I can't agree it worked best without an audience, mind, the primetime ones with the audience often ended up being the most entertaining as it was more obviously played for laughs and everyone knew it, and the audience laughter was infectious and you'd even get Anne smiling and laughing throughout.