The BBC is true to what it's like in America - it repeats itself every 30 minutes with one or two shows in between. There isn't a whole lot of variation from this format and programming. So, after awhile, it gets repetitive and we turn it off.
CNBC is a WHOLE other story! During the day (sometimes when we napped, we're in the room earlier in the day), it's like real CNBC in the United States - a financial ticker of sorts - except it's in Turkish. About 8pm, programming changes to a more American fare. . . The listing of shows we've seen. . .
- The Secret Circle - from the CW
- The Newsroom -from HBO
- How I Met Your Mother - from CBS (though to be fair, it seems to be syndicated now)
- The Closer- from TNT
- Game of Thrones - from HBO
- Shameless (US version -though I admit Wikipedia and IMdb taught me that there was a British version first - of course, it's good, where else does good TV come from) - from Showtime
- Leverage - from TNT (which I had to look up because I had never heard of it before and it's been on since 2008!)
- The Simpsons - um yeah, Fox
- Conan - like O'Brien fromTBS
The first thing I'd like to say about this is - WHAT? Weird that CNBC in Turkey has the rights to all of these shows. Please, someone, explain to me how licensing works? This must be a very complicated process and I guess there is enough room for all the lawyers out there. I want to imagine that being a lawyer that does this type of contract makes it big. But this is research for another day. If I ever go ahead and do that, I'll come back and edit this posting and put a link to that post.
The weirdest thing? They put cartoon flowers on all cigarettes (there was a lot of smoking in our first television watching session - an episode of The Simpsons). Upon further, limited, research, this is newish since 2010. Here's a pretty interesting blog posting about it - and apparently, this happens only on CNBC... though, I have said my research is limited (btw - CHECK OUT there's a link on the blog where you can buy the censor flowers!). Again, if I ever get up to doing more research, I"ll let you know.
The most annoying? The "reklam" noise and interruption. Reklam, in Turkish, means, advertisement. They come on any time an advertisement occurs, which is less often than you think, but the noise/graphic is played before and after EVERY individual advertisement. . .I took some video so you could see it.
Most awesome advert for a show I wanna see? Dila Hanim (not on cnbc - on a "sister" channel). She's beautiful and riding up on a horse to some awesomely cool music. He's very. . . Dos Equis Man. He's sliding on his knees and taps his heart and sticks his hands up. She's pulling out a pistol. . . Gotta wanna watch that. Just in case my description doesn't get it do it for you, here's that video too!
Most liked? Their advert for a very expensive looking refrigerator. Mikal describes it as a very strange conglomeration of Mexican Telenovela, American and Japanese television.
Most disturbing goes to the random disco like computer dance/techno version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We've also checked into some of the other channels - there's Turkey's Got Talent and a version of Iron Chef Turkey - no translation required.
However, my most favorite times having the television on is during the Turkish national soccer team's commercial. No translation is needed for national pride and investment in your home team. It moved me to dance - actually, it moves me to dance EVERY TIME! It's kind of like watching a Packers commercial except it's soccer. In fact, when we were there, a game happened to be on and the entire lobby of the hotel was filled with fans dressed in national uniforms. I loved the commercial and the feeling of community so much that Mikal bought me a jersey! I love it! Oh - and here's the advert. . . enjoy. . . and DANCE AWAY!
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