Global Television Formats

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Format Adaptation as Performance¹

Vinicius Navarro

On December 11, 2006, a well-known Web portal in Brazil ran a story about the popularity of dance competition formats on national television. In the course of approximately 12 months, Brazilian audiences were exposed to seven dance contests, all of which recycled recognizable features from existing TV formats.² The first to premiere, Dança dos Famosos (Dance of the Famous), was in essence an indigenous version of the program known in the United States as Dancing with the Stars (itself an adaptation of the British TV show Strictly Come Dancing), although minor changes involving the number of participants and the voting rules were expected to distinguish the Brazilian ...