The Office USA

This commong amongst American Network TV, the programme has been shown in it's usual form on BBC America for a couple of years. The last style of programmes that were shown on American TV in Prime Time were things from the 1960's, such as The Saint.

Though American Network TV has strict family values to it, as The Office (UK) wouldn't be suitable for a Family audience.

Are there strict rules governing foriegn programming on network TV.

British programme is shown in the US on BBC America (NBC claimed they considered showing the UK version of The Office - but couldn't as BBC America had the rights!) - and also on PBS.

With no Ricky Gervias in it, i thought it'd have a chance, but when I saw a clip, it was like an edition of Cribs with the fella from the MINT advert.

It would be great to have the original shown on network TV in the US but there are several problems:

*The yanks don't have any foriegn TV on their network channels
*The Office includes references to Alcohol and Sex which the American networks wouldn't get away with
*The Office has English references.... which their audience won't get (although it is fine for everyone else to watch American programmes with parochial US references that we don't understand)
*The Office is the wrong length - 28 minutes compared with an american TV half hour length of about 22 minutes