Extras

That's true of every US series. The tendancy seems though to be that the yanks don't want their programmes full of british references, whereas we have to laugh at jokes about Twinkies!

I'm sure HBO is better in this respect than the networks

I happened to watch the HBO version, and saw the American references, which at the time struck me as very odd for a British show. In the Big Brother house in particular, when Andy was going on one of his rants, he mentioned people like Katie Couric and Ryan Seacrest, and I think he might have even said "American Idol". I'm assuming British audiences saw different references?

Indeed we did, for example at the first scene the doll in our version was Jade Goody going on about referring to the Celebrity Big Brother controversy the beginning of this year. :
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=07Nn04h2M44

I seriously don't know why they bothered, I mean we get American imports like The Simpsons and Family Guy etc.. some of the jokes we don't get, but doesn't mean we won't watch. And the 'American References' added into the US version may give viewers over there the impression that the UK was talking about Sanjaya or we know who Katie Couric is.

Who is Katie Couric?

Does Gervais write the American references himself or does a HBO exec hand him a piece of paper after Googling Jade Goody to find the American equivalent?

Katie is a prime-time news anchor.

Google wouldn't have thrown up a link between her and Goody, that's for sure.

She's like Natasha Kaplinsky but liked.

Debatable

Well she isint hated, a lot of people debate wether she can anchor a main evening news show there, but as a person, shes lovely!

Katie that is