Gavin & Stacey turns 15: Why wasn't James Corden's British romantic comedy series able to find an American audience?

Vulture

The comedy that James Corden co-created and co-starred in with Ruth Jones about an Essex boy (Matthew Horne) and a Welsh girl (Joanna Page) "whose long-distance relationship quickly turns into an engagement and then a marriage — blending their eccentric families in a culture clash equal parts charming and hilarious," says Tom Smyth. "As a testament to just how beloved this series still is, when the cast reunited for a 2019 Christmas special, it garnered 18.49 million viewers — half of all the people watching television in the U.K. at the time. Despite that incredible success in Britain, Gavin & Stacey has never found a strong American audience. That’s ironic considering that one of its creators and stars, James Corden, has found fame in the States completely separate from the show that made him a star back home. But that cultural gap in the series’ success isn’t for lack of trying. There were three failed attempts to adapt the show in America: first in 2008 by NBC, then in 2009 by ABC, and lastly a 2013 Fox attempt that made it the furthest. Titled Us & Them, the Fox remake starred Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel and shot seven episodes, none of which made it to air."