HaveIGotNewsForYou

It seems that Santa Claus got my letter after all: American networks are starting to notice the awesome comedic power of British panel shows.

Unfortunately, he didn't it read it very closely: that network is NBC. Hope you like Ex-Lax in your cookies, Santa.

NBC just taped a pilot episode of a remake of the BBC's most famous and classic panel quiz show, Have I Got News For You. It's being hosted by comedian and Air America host Sam Sedar and features Greg Giraldo and Michael Ian Black as the regular team panelists. Buzzerblog doesn't seem to have much confidence in the show being good, but Giraldo and Black and the fact that a network is willing to take a chance on real satire and comedy panel humor makes me want to give it a chance.

NBC will be adapting the BBC panel program Have I Got News For You for American audiences. The British version has been running since 1990 and involves a group of newsmakers and celebrities discussing current events in a humorous fashion. Given the unscripted format, this represents a program that NBC could keep going in the event of another writers' strike.

Other than the name value, I don't see the point of NBC doing an adaptation when they could simply create another program in a similar format. The McLaughlin Report has been doing the panel discussion concept for decades (whether it's for humorous effect depends on the viewer) and I even once attended a taping of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn which was the same concept but involved a panel of comedians and included sketches.

I've never seen Have I Got News For You. For those who have, is it good? Do you think it would fly with American audiences?