Worst Export Winner: Summer Heights High - 46.15% Nominees Kath & Kim - 26.92% Thank God You're Here - 26.92%

	Voter comments "Dad thinks the only thing funnier than Thank God You're Here...is The Best Of Thank God You're Here". If we're referring to the remake of Kath & Kim, it'd be a fierce contender - what a textbook point-misser. But I think Summer Heights High brings the greatest shame to this country. This shame is, of course, deserved - you wouldn't hear all this "Well, they loved it in Australia..." guff if we HADN'T loved it in Australia (...well, we might have if they'd undertaken a Fosters-style "No, really, this gear is HUGE in Australia" campaign anyway), but that's by the by. - samadriel Just because the rest of the world are exporting their pisspoor mockumentaries it doesn't mean we have to. - Bean Is A Carrot The others floundered as remakes. Only Lilley failed as himself. - mixmaster flibble

It was probably Kath & Kim that started Australia's comedy export drive. Sure the BBC had screened shows like Fast Forward in the wee hours at some point in the 90s, The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) had gained a cult following in Britain thanks to screenings on the satellite channel Paramount Comedy circa 2001, and then there's that British re-make of Mother & Son that no one remembers, but when it comes to really successful Australian comedy exports before Kath & Kim, Barry Humphries and Paul Hogan were pretty much the only shows in town.

The girls from Fountain Lakes premiered on UK digital channels in 2003 and quickly gained a minor cult following. The BBC began airing the show in 2004 but despite a massive PR push, which included an in-character appearance by the pair at The British Comedy Awards, the show failed to rise much above cult status. The most recent outing for Kath & Kim on British television was the broadcast of Da Kath & Kim Code at 2.15am on New Year's Day. Series 4 has yet to air on mainstream TV there.

Still, the fact that it had been on the BBC and gained a cult following on US digital channels must have been a key factor in NBC's decision to produce a re-make. As we know, that re-make was ripped off-air by Seven after only two episodes and received a critical panning in the US. Here's a typical review:

	Snide but not smart, Kath & Kim will likely leave American audiences scratching their heads, wondering what Australians saw in the concept -- or if something was seriously lost in translation. - Variety

But despite this, ratings were strong enough for NBC to order a full series, then not quite strong enough to prevent them from cutting back that order. Whether the producers take the reviews onboard and give the show more of a local flavour, as with the US version of The Office, we shall see. The clock is ticking...

Of course, what's really fascinating about international reviews of Australian shows is how the critics overseas seem to spot all the flaws that our local scribblers missed. The winner in this category, Summer Heights High, which began to air on HBO in November after a run on the BBC's digital channel BBC-3 earlier in the year, received these incisive notices:

	The script had its moments but Lilley needed to cast someone other than himself in the plum parts. It was like seeing Ricky Gervais play Brent, Gareth and Dawn. Virtuosity is good, Chris. Funny is even better. - The Times

	Lilley himself has moments of inspiration but far too few, falling back on easy stereotypes that quickly grow tedious. Again, the fact this thing was such a massive ratings success in the land of kangaroos gives one pause, as if the punchline portion of the audio feed had to be somehow malfunctioning. The inescapable conclusion: them Aussies are far too easily entertained. - The Hollywood Reporter

If only the likes of, well, all of the Australian media had spotted those flaws. But they didn't, and executives overseas bought them, based in part on those positive reviews.

But if you've been reading this and thinking "Who cares if a few people overseas get ripped off?", think again. It's a few years from now and you're trying to have a quiet stein at Munich's Oktoberfest when some bore from Scotland or Idaho starts ear-bashing you about how bad Australian comedy must be if Chris Lilley's output is any indication. And no, he hasn't heard of The Games, The Micallef P(r)ogram(me), Frontline, The Late Show, Get This or Clarke & Dawe, but that won't stop him repeating his view in a variety of different ways for the next three hours.

Still, at least he'll never know Australians invented Thank God You're Here. And why would he? It's so bland it could have come from that TV format factory Endemol presumably operate somewhere just out of The Hague. And it's the very blandness of the show that makes it the real winner of this trio of exports, having been sold to 13 countries. (Although it's interesting to note that in the UK and US, countries who've been producing great TV comedy for decades, it was cancelled after one series due to poor ratings.)

But all these Australian comedies failing in key overseas markets are unlikely to stop future entrepreneurs. They're thinking only about what else they could sell. How about a Belgian version of The Fat? Or Ecaudor's take on Three Men and a Baby Grand? Neither seem quite as unlikely as Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz's animated version of Sit Down, Shut Up, but it's premiering on Fox in April. Meanwhile, Kath & Kim producer Rick McKenna is reported to be trying to aquire the rights to The Games to flog it to the Brits in time for the 2012 Olympics. And The Gruen Transfer's been sold to the Netherlands - dizzy stuff!

Worst Panel / Talk Show Guest >>