Friday night

When I lived in England, Friday night was a great night for TV. The advent of Sky + (DVR) meant that even if you had a life and went out, you could still catch up on your shows.

One show in particular that I used to enjoy, although rarely actually watch on Friday nights was BBC 1's Friday night with Jonathan Ross. I've talked about Jonathan Ross before as I regularly listen to his Radio 2 podcast.

The BBC makes quality television. It is funded in a unique way with the licence fee so it is commercial free.

However, BBC America is a different story. For starters, it is a commercial station. It carries advertising. It also shows mostly crap. Cooking shows, cleaning shows, attic antiques shows, shows that show you hot to clean up after cooking in your attic. It's pretty much a reality TV twilight zone with the same shows repeated a couple of times a day, and the unbelievably lazy 'marathons' which are basically just an excuse to show the same show constantly for three days.

To be fair, there are a lot of good shows on BBC America, but they take the easy option and mostly show dumb, mind numbing tv that the general public loves. Notable exceptions include the excellent Gavin & Stacey, Torchwood, Primeval etc although I maybe wouldn't watch the latter two if I still lived in England and had access to other shows.

I often wondered why the BBC didn't show more of the quality television that it is renowned for. Where are the David Attenborough documentaries? The funny and informative QI with Stephen Fry? Friday night with Jonathan Ross?

And now we finally get to the point of this post. The BBC have finally seen the error of their ways and are going to start airing Friday night with Jonathan Ross on BBC America. The starts on June 12th at 8pm (7pm central). Jonathan Ross is the BBC's highest earner by far so it makes sense to exploit his popularity and get more for their money.

Friday night with Jonathan Ross could be described as the UK's version of The Tonight Show, except it's only on once a week. It is a talk show and even has it's own house band "Four poofs and piano" who add a little gaiety to the proceedings.

The first show will feature Dustin Hoffman, Hugh Laurie (House) and a certain Eric Cantona, Manchester United legend turned actor.