I remember when CBS decided to try this on it's Friday late night slot. It took one of the UKs most successful music shows and gave it a go around in America. The key the original's success was simple: just music. CBS tried to jazz it up like cute little skits and a larger than life studio. They would also showed clips from the UK version of the show (which looked much cooler then than it does today).
Many factors are the reason why it didn't work. This was on real late at night on a Friday. Either people are out or asleep. There was also the fact CBS was a commercial network and BBC was commercial free. It was very hard to stay tuned for an hour. It was only on for like a year before the show was canned.
A while back, the BBC version was presented on BBC America. I thought it was much better since it was just half an hour (and on an early Saturday evening too). BBCA also kept up with the shows as they got a show a week after it was transmitted in England. As usual, BBC America messed it up by trimming down 10 minutes of it, only keeping in acts people in the States would know, and moving it to odd times. It was taken off in a matter of months. It's still Number One, but not in this country, I guess.
