Dueling Shows

The below is a list of shows that are considered twisted reflections of each other. Which is the original and which is the rip-off is not always completely clear.

Often, the shows are developed at the same time, so all they have in common is their basic premise and pitch description. This is especially true in animation, given the long lead time required to get a finished show to air. When both programs get to the screen, they may differ in every important respect, except their one-sentence capsule description. Each program has its own audience and meddling suits. Either way, if they persist in coexisting, the audience will polarize, and the shows will evolve away from each other, or one will be canceled.

Sometimes, rather than home-brew a knock off, a company will license a foreign program, usually Anime, and adapt it to be more like its competitor.

Rarely, two dissimilar shows will develop a rivalry. Maybe they're opposite each other in the same time slot, maybe one steals the other's time slot, or maybe there's some superficial similarity that causes viewers to compare the two shows. Arrested Development had a whole episode full of in-jokes about how people compared it to The OC, simply because they were both on FOX and set in Orange County, California.

See Dueling Movies for the cinematic version and Dueling Games for the video game version. Do not confuse with Fighting Series.

Again, just to be clear: The shows have to air during the same time period, otherwise you've got either Follow the Leader or Serial Numbers Filed Off. Also see Fandom Rivalry.

Anime and Manga
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Live-Action TV

 * Auction Hunters || Storage Wars, Storage Hunters || Reality shows focused on auctioning off repossessed storage units. || The content of the shows are very similar, but the execution varies between them. Auction Hunters puts more emphasis on testing and appraising their finds, Storage Wars puts more focus on the four factions bidding and Storage Hunters keeps most of the show on the auction grounds unless something needs appraised || Ratings are good for both Auction Hunters and Storage Wars but Storage Wars has its own spinoff show Storage Wars Texas. Storage Hunters wrapped up eight episodes last summer and is in dead last. ||
 * Kitchen Nightmares || Restaurant Impossible, Bar Rescue || Restaurant or bar renovation reality shows || All three shows have a similar premise and no-nonsense hosts. Nightmares has a week to get the restaurant going again, Impossible two days and a budget of $10,000 and Bar Rescue, five days. Rescue is also different because it focuses more on a business aspect than menu/makeover aspect.|| Unknown for now but Kitchen Nightmares'' has a HUGE head start. ||
 * Behind The Music (Original Run) || E! True Hollywood Story || Weekly documentaries on celebrities from the entertainment world. || Both debuting in 1996, THS covered a wider range of celebrities than BTM (which focused on the music industry), as well leaning more towards the sensationalistic (The first regular episode of THS focused on the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer of the sitcom My Sister Sam and porn stars are a frequent subject). || THS has been going strong since its debut. BTM had a three-year hiatus from 2006-2009 and produced only a handful of new episodes since. THS is a bit more popular, but ''BTM" has a better reputation treating its subjects more respectfully.
 * Game of Thrones || The Borgias || R-rated premium cable series heavy on medieval political intrigue || Neither series is an original work - Game of Thrones is based on George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, while The Borgias is based on the historical family. || Game of Thrones has the better ratings by far, though both shows are critically acclaimed and have been renewed for a second season. ||
 * Game of Thrones || Camelot || R-rated premium cable series heavy on medieval political intrigue || Again, Game of Thrones is based on George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, while Camelot is based on the Arthruian legends. || Just like Merlin, Game of Thrones blew Camelot out of the water. ||
 * Glee || Community || Feel-good comedy focusing on social misfits of a school banning together || With Glee every episode is the Musical Episode. Community isn't easily confined to any one genre, doing full episode takes on action movies, Zombie Apocalypse, and Spaghetti Western. || Too soon to call. Glee has received more rewards and has a consistently higher rating, but in the second season has been attacked for a lack of consistent writing and a failure of character development. Community is often the darling of critics but a perennial underachiever in the ratings.||
 * Intervention || Addicted || Documentary-style Reality Show about people suffering through addictions || Intervention focuses more on the leadup to the intervention, while Addicted focuses on some post-intervention work as well. || Both are still running, but Intervention (which started in 2005) has a good five years - not to mention an Emmy - on its competition. ||
 * Let's Make a Deal || The New Treasure Hunt || Game show. Contestants use their hunches to win prizes. || Both LMaD (created by longtime host Monty Hall) and Treasure Hunt (the 1970s and 1980s runs, produced by The Gong Show creator Chuck Barris and hosted by Geoff Edwards) had the same basic premise: testing contestants on playing hunches and their willingness to risk their current winnings on hopefully winning more ... or losing it all by getting a a worthless, nonsense prize. On LMaD, it was called a "zonk," while Treasure Hunt referred to these items as a "klunk." The major difference was that Treasure Hunt had the contestants view – or more often than not, participate in – a skit that made them think they had lost, then won, then lost ... and so forth, until the final outcome was revealed. Also, Treasure Hunt had a top prize of $25,000 (up to $50,000 in the 1981 run); LMaD for awhile used a top prize of $20,000. || LMaD, although Treasure Hunt has remained a cult favorite, and was well received for host Geoff Edwards' hosting duties. ||
 * The Ed Sullivan Show || Hollywood Palace || Vaudeville-style variety show, with acts spanning every genre and generation. || The Ed Sullivan Show – initially known as the "Toast of the Town" was hosted by the New York entertainment columnist, and he presented every type of act imaginable – from burlesque comedy and opera to ballet and top popular music acts of the day; the best-known episodes are the ones that featured early national TV performances of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Muppets. Among the many competing shows of "various acts" bills was ABC's Hollywood Palace, taped at the eponymously-named venue in Hollywood, California. Unlike Ed Sullivan, Hollywood Palace had guest hosts each week; the program is best known for the earliest performances of The Rolling Stones and The Jackson 5. || Ed Sullivan; even more is that the show was in the same time block for almost its entire 23-year run (1948-1971) – Sundays at 8 p.m. EST. For its part, Hollywood Palace had a six-year run (1964-1970) and was able to attract most of the same big-name acts as Sullivan did, including (most notably) The Rolling Stones and The Jackson 5. ||
 * Merlin || Camelot || A series based on the stories of King Arthur featuring an Estrogen Brigade Bait actor playing Merlin and a beautiful, non-British, Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette actress playing evil sorceress Morgan(a). || Merlin is based around a cast of mostly young unknowns while the cast of Camelot is older and more famous (Colin Morgan vs Joseph Fiennes and Katie McGrath vs EvaGreen.) Merlin is unashamedly High Fantasy aimed at family viewing while Camelot is a Darker and Edgier Low Fantasy.|| Merlin is still filming new episodes while Camelot was cancelled after ten episodes. ||
 * Friday the 13 th The Series || Freddys Nightmares || Horror Anthology show vaguely related to a famous Slasher Film series || Friday The 13th had no real connections to the films other than the name while Freddy's Nightmares actually had Robert Englund reprising his role as Freddy Krueger, although his role was usually limited to serving as the host and narrator of each episode. Friday The 13th had a Myth Arc behind the stories and featured a regular cast while in Freddy's Nightmares the stories were mostly unrelated. || Both of them ended around the same time but Friday The 13th had lasted one more season, had more episodes and got more respect critically. ||
 * Downton Abbey || Upstairs, Downstairs (2010 series) || Ensemble drama about the relationships between the family and staff of a large Edwardian house || Downton (like the original series of Upstairs Downstairs) is set in the 1910's, in the leadup to World War I; Upstairs, Downstairs is set in the 30s in the leadup to World War II - aside from that the storylines are strikingly similar, including one of the sisters having an affair with the driver, and the lady of the house dealing with a late pregnancy. || Downton's first season finished in December 2010, Upstairs is still running. Both have been fairly well received. ||
 * House of Anubis || Tower Prep || Kids shows about a group of teenagers trying to find out the secrets of their rather creepy Boarding School. || The students of Tower Prep all have some type of supernatural ability to help them escape, whereas Anubis is more like a whodunit to find out why their friend Joy disappeared. Simply, Tower is like a Lighter and Softer Prison Break, while Anubis has a mystery arc like Twin Peaks. Also, while Tower debuted first, Anubis is based on a Dutch show that aired before either of them. || Anubis was a Ratings winner and was given a second season, while Tower wasn't. ||
 * Toddlers and Tiaras (TLC) || Little Miss Perfect (WE tv) || Reality shows that premiered in 2009 about young girls in beauty pageants. || Toddlers and Tiaras has more girls from 1-5, whereas Little Miss Perfect is about girls from 5-10. || So far, Toddlers and Tiaras seems to be more popular and gets clips shown on news networks, and has had 4 season as opposed to Little Miss Perfect, which had only two. ||
 * Pawn Stars (History Channel) || Hardcore Pawn (TruTV) || Antiques Roadshow meets American Chopper || Stars tends to focus more on the customers and items being sold. Hardcore focuses more on the American Chopper-style conflicts. ||


 * The X Factor || The Voice || Musical talent shows with celebrity judges attempting to challenge American Idol. || The X Factor was made by former Idol judge and record producer Simon Cowell, and is an adaptation of his British show of the same name (which was, in turn, the successor to Pop Idol, the show that spun off AI in the first place). || So far, The Voice is trouncing Cowell's show in both ratings and critical respect, and is standing toe to toe with Idol. ||
 * Dinosaur Revolution || Planet Dinosaur || SFX-heavy dinosaur documentaries || Released in 2011 around the summer to autumn transition, the first is a story- and character-driven animated series-turned-docu by the Discovery Channel, the second a serious and science-heavy BBC show || Both received mixed reviews by the online paleo-community, but so far they seem to be tied, being enjoyed or disliked for different reasons. ||
 * The Superstars || Battle Of The Network Stars || Celebrities compete against each other in different athletic competitions. || Superstars featured athletes from all over the sporting map (Olympics, MLB, NFL, boxing, etc). Battle featured teams of stars from ABC, CBS, and NBC competing against each other. || Battle aired from 1978 to 1985 on CBS, with a brief revival attempt in 1988. Superstars had three different runs on ABC (1973-1984, 1991-1994, 1998-2002), one on NBC (1985-1990) and a one year run on CBS (2003). ABC in 2009, making it half celebrities (a la Dancing With the Stars) half-athletes. ||
 * Police Stop || Police Camera Action || Footage of dangerous driving and the police doing emergency work and making arrests. || Police Stop was a series of sequels, i.e. Police Stop! 2, Police Stop! 3 etc. whereas Police Camera Action used episode titles, e.g. The Unprotected. That show also had presenter links, unlike Police Stop which was (rarely) after episode 2 with a presenter, except for the Very Special Episode Police Stop! 9. Graham Cole presented every episode of Police Stop, except Police Stop! 2 which he did the voice-overs but no on-screen presentation.Police Camera Action is now going this way, so neither show wins. || Neither wins, since Police Camera Action is an adaptation of Police Stop with actual presenter links. ||
 * Good Luck Charlie || Raising Hope || Sitcoms involving the titular infant girl and her family. || Good Luck, Charlie is kid-friendly, on the Disney Channel, and every episode ends with Charlie's teenage sister Teddy recording a video for her, while Raising Hope is rated TV-PG to TV-14, on FOX, and is about a 23 year old named Jimmy who finds out that he had a daughter (the eponymous Hope) after a one night stand with a woman who is now in prison. || According to IMDB, Raising Hope has higher ratings than Good Luck, Charlie. Though the latter series has also been pulling in great ratings for Disney as well plus have a Christmas-themed TV movie. At the current, its a tie.||
 * Pan Am || The Playboy Club || Mad Men-inspired, early '60s period dramas about a subset of workers in the era (Pan Am stewardesses and Playboy bunnies, respectively). || The inspiration for the two shows focuses on the historical changes of the era, as well as breaking viewers' Nostalgia Filter for The Sixties by highlighting the injustices (racism, sexism) that were still rampant then. Oh, and it has Gorgeous Period Dress and depicts its main characters living extravagant, flashy lifestyles. Now, can you guess what the two network copycat shows focused on? || Neither show held a candle to Mad Men in terms of critical acclaim, though Pan Am was the better received of the two and lasted a full season before getting the axe. The big loser was The Playboy Club, which attracted a lot of heat from feminists before its premiere for glamorizing and whitewashing the Playboy clubs of the '60s, and which got cancelled after only three critically-ravaged episodes (attempts to get the show picked up by Bravo failed). ||
 * Grimm || Once Upon a Time || The basic premise of both is that the characters live in a world where Fairy Tales are real. || Grimm (airing on NBC) obviously focuses on fairy tales specific to The Brothers Grimm, with Once Upon A Time(airing on ABC) covering the whole spectrum. Grimm also appears to be darker and more like Supernatural, with the main character hunting the fairy tale creatures, while Once Upon A Time, while still a drama, is probably much lighter, considering the broadcaster airing it (ABC) and the owners of the company (The Walt Disney Company). || Both shows get good ratings for their respective networks. While Grimm's ratings are significantly lower than Once Upon a Time's, it airs on Friday and peforms pretty well by Friday standards. It also airs on NBC, which has much lower standards for ratings. Once Upon a Time, meanwhile, is one of the top new dramas of the season. I guess Once Upon a Time would be the winner, since it does generally get more recognition than Grimm does, although both shows are fairly successful.||
 * Human Weapon (History Channel) || Fight Quest (Travel Channel) || A pair of American professional fighters travel the world to observe and study various combat styles. The episode ends with one of the duo facing off against a master of that episode's spotlight fighting style. || Quest would have its duo split up and train with separate groups of practioners and focused equally on the culture surrounding the art as the art itself. Weapon focused more on the combat style itself and the science behind the techniques. || Both shows lasted less than thirty episodes, both cancelled in 2008. ||
 * The Walking Dead || American Horror Story || Prime-time adult Horror shows on basic cable. || Dead is about a Zombie Apocalypse and is jam-packed with blood and guts, while Horror Story is about a Haunted House and focuses more on the screwing (both mental and physical). || Both shows have been record-setting smash hits for their respective networks (AMC and FX, respectively), though The Walking Dead seems to get more respect from critics. ||
 * Cold Squad || Waking the Dead & Cold Case || Cop Show featuring a team of detectives reopening and cracking cases long forgotten. || Each show was produced by a different country. Cold Squad in Canada, Waking the Dead in U.K. and Cold Case in the U.S. || Technically a draw, as each series was fairly aclaimed and held the fort for years in their home countries. ||
 * Malcolm in The Middle || Oliver Beene || Sit Com about a Dysfunctional Family that raises a boy who frequently breaks the fourth wall. || Another example of dueling shows created by the same network. Oliver Beene had the same style of humor and direction, but set in a version of the 1960s that basically came off as the 2000s in vintage clothing. || Oliver Beene, a Midseason Replacement, failed to last even the rest of the season, while Malcolm lasted seven. ||
 * Win, Lose or Draw || Pictionary || "Picture charades" Game Show. || Although Win, Lose or Draw came on the air before its rival, the Pictionary board game predated both. Fast Draw, a 1968 game hosted by Johnny Gilbert, predated that. || Win, Lose or Draw for lasting three seasons (two on NBC) as opposed to Pictionary's two (both in syndication, and one of which was a children's show). ||
 * The Singing Bee || Don't Forget the Lyrics || Karaoke Game Show. || In a double duel, NBC announced Singing Bee for fall 2007. FOX rushed the ripoff into production for summer 2007, which led NBC to announce an earlier start date before casting a host or taping an episode. The shows premiered on consecutive nights in July 2007. DFTL! has one contestant and an overall format echoing other big money game shows,, whereas SB has multiple contestants in an elimination format, much like a spelling bee. Don't Forget the Lyrics! lasted three seasons on FOX before being canceled, while Singing Bee lasted only one season on NBC. The former went into syndication for a season, and the latter got Un Canceled for CMT. || Singing Bee, which has outlasted both of Lyrics ' cancellations.
 * Ferris Bueller || Parker Lewis Can't Lose || Sit Com about a High School Hustler. || Both aired in the very early 90s -- the former on NBC, the latter on FOX. And they were both an attempt to make a viable show out of the movie Ferris Buellers Day Off. || Parker Lewis was generally regarded as being of higher quality, and ultimately got three seasons. Ferris got one. ||
 * Blood Ties || Moonlight || Short-lived Vampire Detective Series. || The similarities are probably more due to the nature of the genre rather than direct copying. || Neither lasted more than a season. The lessons learned were applied to the later Vampire Diaries to much better success. ||
 * Prime Time Entertainment Network || Action Pack || Big Studio-produced, part-anthologies/part-syndicated networks. trying to emulate the success of FOX's launch || PTEN (a joint venture from Warner Brothers and United Television) boasted Babylon Five along with Time Trax and Kung Fu : The Legend Continues. Universal's Action Pack was led by the one-two punch of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess'' || PTEN lasted four seasons, with only B5 lasting more than two. Action Pack lasted longer (ten seasons) with a much fuller roster of shows. ||
 * WWF Raw || WCW Nitro || Monday night Professional Wrestling shows with a focus on sports entertainment over pure wrestling. || It started with Eric Bischoff asking for a Monday night timeslot to compete directly with the WWF, and spawned a constant game of one-upsmanship which saw, among other things, WCW spoiling the WWF's shows on-the-air, WWF starting Raw 3 minutes early to get the jump on Nitro, WCW responding by starting a full hour earlier, WWF sending D-Generation X to mingle with the fans outside a Nitro event and cause trouble, and Eric Bischoff challenging Vince McMahon to a fight live on Pay-Per-View. Ahh, the Monday Night Wars... those were great times to be a wrestling fan. || Raw, to the point where McMahon got to bury Nitro on its last broadcast, setting up the unsuccessful "Invasion" storyline. ||
 * Survivorman || Man vs. Wild || A host demonstrates survival techniques by stranding himself in varying wildernesses. || Both are shown on the Discovery Channel. The most notable difference is that Wild tends to have many more "stunt" oriented segments, and takes many more unnecessary risks than Survivorman does (to show it can be done if necessary). Both avoid direct competition with each other by having one air new episodes while the other is still filming. Man also has a camera and safety crew on hand, and is occasionally staged, while Survivorman shoots the footage himself. || Man by default, with Les Stroud deciding to move on to other projects. Both were about equal in ratings and fan following. ||
 * Man vs. Wild || Wild Recon || See above. || For once, Wild Recon is actually on a different network this time -- specifically, Animal Planet, for some reason. Wild Recon is also quite a bit closer to Man vs. Wild than Survivorman was, especially after Man vs. Wild's slight Retool. || Wild Recon is a new series for 2010, so it's too early to tell, but Man vs. Wild does have the advantage of being a long-established series. ||
 * Wife Swap || Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy || Two polar opposite families trade spouses for several days. || ABC broadcasts Wife Swap and claims to have done it first, while FOX aired Trading Spouses a few weeks before Wife Swap's debut in what seems to be a blatant ripoff (though both appeared to rip off a Chappelles Show skit that aired one year earlier.) || Wife Swap. ||
 * Bewitched || I Dreamof Jeannie || Sit Com in which a guy tries to live an ordinary life despite having a long-term relationship with a blonde with magical powers. || Bewitched had Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead and The Other Darrin. I Dreamof Jeannie had JR Ewing and Barbara Eden in revealing clothing. Actually, if you like 1960s sitcoms, these are both pretty good. || Both won -- and so did viewers. ||
 * Any Dream Will Do (aka Joseph) || Grease Is The Word || Talent Show in which a panel of experts search for the lead for an upcoming musical production. || Joseph was, essentially, The BBC's second season of their Musical Talent Show brand, which they debuted the previous year with How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. Grease Is The Word was ITV's adaptation of the U.S. version of Maria. Joseph had Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Barrowman and Denise Van Outen judging, Grease had David Gest, musical producer David Ian, Brain Friedman from The X Factor and... Sinetta. || "Grease" was a ratings flop because it was in Doctor Who's time slot and didn't have the star pull. ||
 * American Bandstand || Soul Train || Teens dancing to the popular music of the day. The day's hottest musical acts appeared as well. || To put it bluntly: American Bandstand was for white kids, and Soul Train was for black kids. Or to be a bit less blunt -- Bandstand emphazised the music, Train highlighted the dancing. A difference that was highlighted by both shows' signature segments: Bandstand's song ratings ("It's got a good beat and you can dance to it!") and the Soul Train Line. || Both lasted the same amount of seasons, with Bandstand having a 13-season headstart and Tain lasting thirteen seasons after Bandstand's cancellation. Soul Train seems to be more fondly remembered, though both have their Never Live It Down factor: Bandstand for its overwhelming whiteness and Train for its inescapable link to '70s fashion, music and afros. ||
 * Blue Thunder || Airwolf || Crime-fighting super helicopters, and the people that flew them. || Both debuting in 1984, Blue Thunder was spun off from the 1983 top-grossing feature film, and drew heavily on it for stock footage. Airwolf debuted 16 days later and was thematically similar to the already successful Knight Rider. || Thunder barely lasted half a season. Airwolf ran for four seasons on CBS and USA, though it got pretty dire by the end. ||
 * Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam || BET's Comicview || Black stand up comedy with an "urban" flavor. || Both debuted in the mid '90s, during the Stand Up Comedy Boom. Def Comedy tends to pull bigger names and uses its pay cable slot to get away with saltier language. Comicview tends to edit its shows, often splicing several comics together for themed segments. || Comicview has been on-air longer, running continuously from 1992 to 2008. ||
 * Joan of Arcadia || Wonderfalls || Too Good to Last Magic Realism Dramedies, each featuring a Weirdness Magnet heroine, who's stuck in a dead-end job and starts hearing voices telling her to do things. || Both premiered in the same year. || Wonderfalls was canceled after one season, while Joan managed to last a couple of seasons before Executive Meddling wrecked it. But really, both were good shows that got killed off, so who lost? The viewers. ||
 * Ghost Whisperer || Medium || Supernaturally-enhanced crime dramas. || The former sees ghosts; the latter has premonitions. Both are backed by "acclaimed" psychics. Medium started on NBC although it was produced by CBS. Whisperer began on CBS. When NBC cancelled Medium, CBS picked it up and put on the same night back-to-back with Whisperer. || Moved from Dueling Shows to complementary shows. After one season together, CBS axed Whisperer but retained Medium. ||
 * Living Single || Friends || A group of twenty-something friends/roommates living in New York City ||The most obvious difference was the main cast: Single's black, female-dominated cast vs. Friends ' white, gender-balanced cast. Living Single also tended less soap opera-ish and slightly more reality-based and avoided Friends' mass-Flanderization. || Friends lasted ten seasons. Living Single lasted only five, though the rerun appeal of both programs remain high. Friends was a huge success internationally, while Living Single didn't really show up outside of the US. Also, Friends spawned a (not very successful) spin-off. ||
 * Cashmere Mafia || Lipstick Jungle || A group of friends who are all successful businesswomen. || One of them had four women; one had only three. Both were written by former Sex and The City writers. || Both of them got screwed over by the Writers' Guild strike, airing just seven episodes each in their first seasons. Unfortunately, Lipstick Jungle was the only one that got renewed, a fact that became infinitely worse in the wake of a certain Volkswagen ad campaign. ||
 * The Amazing Race || Lost (2001) || Reality game show where teams travel to exotic locales. || Lost premiered one day earlier. || Lost premiered seven days before 9/11 and, because it featured New York City imagery still featuring the Twin Towers, it ended up with (in this case justified) Executive Meddling to make it less triggering. This meant that only five of six episodes aired. The Amazing Race is still on. When asked, 99% of people will know a TV show called Lost as... ||
 * Lost (2004) || Flight 29 Down || Plane crashes on an island; characters must adapt. || Lost premiered a year earlier and became an overnight sensation. F 29 D is "Lost" for kids more or less, though the show was actually based on a book and the concept was pitched before Lost got on the air.|| F 29 D was cancelled after two seasons. Lost is considered the pioneer in 21st century mainstream mystery-drama television. ||
 * Lost (2004) || Surface, Threshold, Invasion, Flash Forward, The Event, The River, Terra Nova, Alcatraz || High-concept mystery show focusing on character development and long mythic arcs. || As seen by the list in the "Clone" column, Lost spawned a bevy of imitators trying to replicate its formula for success. || Lost outlasted them all. Every show in this entry not lucky enough to be called "Lost" was canceled after its first season due to low ratings, and every single one of them ended with a Left Hanging ending. Terra Nova, Alcatraz, and The River premiered after Lost had already gone off the air, however, but they still followed the Lost formula, and met the same fate as the other Lost clones. ||
 * Extreme Makeover || The Swan || Plastic surgery makeover shows. || Fox's copycat went the Fox Extra Tastelessness Step by putting the women through the hell of plastic surgery and then sent half of them home at the end of the episode while bringing the other half on to a beauty pageant. || Both had Family Unfriendly Aesops and were ultimately canceled. The former has a More Popular Spinoff in the form of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, while the latter is a perennial inclusion on "Worst Reality Shows of All Time" lists. ||
 * Recess || Detention || A group of kids have misadventures in school whilst under the eye of a large strict female teacher. || One Saturday Morning was beating Kids' WB! in the ratings race, so it seems pretty obvious here that Warner Bros. decided to Follow the Leader. || Both shows were quite good, but Recess is the clear winner, having lasted six seasons and even landing a theatrical feature film. Detention was canceled after one season. ||
 * Fringe || Eleventh Hour || Two "Science Is Both Good And Bad" series. || Both did well in the ratings. || Though Eleventh Hour was a ratings leader, it just got canned after one season. Fringe, however, lives to see another season. ||
 * House || Lie to Me || FOX dramas featuring eccentric, wisecracking, and disillusioned doctor/detectives based on real people and played by eminent British actors. || Tim Roth doesn't attempt an American accent and Lie to Me focuses more on the detective aspect. || House has way more awards and higher ratings, while Lie to Me was canceled after 3 seasons and did not have nearly the critical acclaim.||
 * The Unusuals || Southland || Ensemble cop shows centering on a Non-Idle Rich rookie. || Series launched within days of each other. ABC's The Unusuals takes a quirky, comedic approach, while NBC's Southland is a grittier kind of drama. Southland just got renewed for another season; Unusuals didn't. Then NBC canceled Southland before the second season started. || Southland wins by a mile. Though both series were axed after their first season, TNT picked up Southland for a second season after NBC dumped it, and it's been going strong ever since. ||
 * MTV's Downtown || Mission Hill || Late 90's Adult Animated series about the bizarre city life. || Both shows were released in 1999, they were well animated following artistic styles of Alternative comics. They were so unique and strange, too strange for their own good. They both had strange characters and stranger settings. They had many sexual jokes and nerdy pop culture jokes. || Both shows lasted only one season with 13 episodes. Mission Hill wins only because they get reruns on Adult Swim after the show was cancelled, along with a proper DVD release. Downtown's DVD release is only available online directly from the creators.||
 * Psych || The Mentalist || Phony Psychic solves actual crimes not through ESP, but an unusually sharp ability to observe and deduce. || Very different in tone, which defrays some of the cries of "ripoff" from Psych fans. || The Mentalist is one of CBS's most successful new shows; Psych isn't quite as big for USA, but is pretty big nonetheless. Lampshaded /ShoutOut-ed/ Take That-ed in a farewell spot the "Psych" acknowledged Monk as "the second-most-observant guy I know... well, third after The Mentalist." ||
 * The Midnight Special || Don Kirshner's Rock Concert || Ninety minutes of live music by a variety of acts, with occasional taped shows and comedy. || Special debuted six months before Rock Concert. Special aired on NBC, Rock Concert was syndicated. The biggest difference between the shows were the hosts: Midnight Special had Wolfman Jack as the announcer and a series of guest hosts, Rock Concert was hosted by Kirshner himself. || Both shows ended in 1981, but Midnight Special wins here because the concerts are offered on DVD via Nostalgia Filter Infomercials, which make them more familiar. ||
 * The Weakest Link || Friend or Foe? || Antagonistic game show that whittles down team members round by round. Snarky Host.|| Friend or Foe is the more savage of the two, because while Weakest Link guarantees one player leaves with money, it was a distinct possibility that nobody could win anything of Friend or Foe. || The gimmickry didn't provide for particularly long runs for Friend or Foe, so Weakest Link wins. ||
 * Who Wants to be a Millionaire? || Greed || A multiple-choice exam where the money goes up as the questions get harder. || Millionaire has quite a few people becoming millionaires; Greed had a person becoming a millionaire. That's how hard Greed was! || Greed lasted one season. Millionaire had a successful run on ABC, and currently survives in syndication. ||
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer || Charmed || Young people battle the forces of evil in California. Both were hits for The WB network. Hot female witches were involved. || The characters on Buffy were high school and, later, college kids, while on Charmed, the Halliwell sisters were all adults. || Buffy ran for seven seasons, had a successful spinoff that ran for five, and is today revered as one of the greatest shows of The Nineties. Charmed ran for eight seasons, but is typically viewed as more kitschy, often associated with the behind-the-scenes struggles between Shannen Doherty and the rest of the cast. Still though, Charmed always garnered better ratings than Buffy and even today, in syndication, the show still gets pretty consistent ratings on TNT so much that an episode's been aired at least twice nearly every weekday for the past seven years or so.||
 * Virtuality || Defying Gravity || 2001: A Space Odyssey With Girls! || Virtuality is from the writer of Battlestar Galactica while Defying Gravity was written by a writer from Greys Anatomy. Both feature space crews of pretty people in a ship for a long duration of time, to unravel FTL-travel and explore every planet in the solar system, respectively. Virtuality has to deal with a possibly unreliable AI and possibly a hacker; it's implied that Defying Gravity's mission was at the behest of unknown forces. || Defying Gravity wins by a nose. Although it was canceled after its first season, it still made it farther than Virtuality, which was nothing more than a failed pilot turned into a TV movie. ||
 * HawthoRNe || Nurse Jackie || Post-ER hospital dramas focusing on flawed but heroic nurses. || Aside from different races of the two leads, Jackie is a bit Darker and Edgier, what with Jackie having an affair with the pharmacist who's also her dealer. || Jackie has Emmys and a strong supporting cast. HawthoRNe is critically derided for its blandness and being beholden to too many nurse drama tropes, and its incredibly mockable title. ||
 * Dog Whisperer || It's Me Or The Dog || Renowned dog trainers visit troublesome dogs and train not only the animals but their owners as well. || Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan has a rougher approach to being a pack leader than the cruelty-free endorsing Victoria. || Dog Whisperer, for now. Cesar has had more criticism for his techniques though.||
 * CSI: || Bones || Forensic specialists team up with the police to solve crimes. || Bones has considerably more emphasis on the UST than CSI:... || Both are pretty successful, but CSI is the clear winner, with three different spinoff shows. ||
 * Jon and Kate Plus Eight || 19 Kids and Counting... || Cameras film the complicated lives of families with a larger-than usual amount of children on TLC. || Jon and Kate's lives have sadly become a lot more complicated than the Duggars'... || Pretty much subjective to how you feel about shows featuring large families; there is no middle ground here. ||
 * Ace of Cakes || Cake Boss || Reality TV show about creative bakers making Beyond the Impossible cakes. || The two leads are Red Oni, Blue Oni: Duff is usually very relaxed and surrounded by friends while Buddy is a bit more agitated and surrounded by relatives and his four older sisters. || Ace Of Cakes makes cakes on the extremely decorative side while Cake Boss forgoes a bit on the fondant for both delicous and decorative cakes. ||
 * Little People, Big World || The Little Couple || Reality TV show about the lives of married little people on TLC || The former family has four children while the latter couple are newlyweds. ||
 * Clean House || Hoarders || Reality TV explores people with irritatingly or pathologically cluttered homes. || Hoarders'' is the more Serious Business of the two, considering that pathological hoarding is an actual mental illness. ||
 * Have I Got News for You || Mock the Week || Comedy panel quiz/"quiz" focusing on recent news, featuring both regular panellists and guests || HIGNFY has been running much longer and is generally considered more cerebral and culturally valuable, but MTW is a good contender comedy-wise. Frequently draw from the same pool of guests. || Everybody wins. ||
 * The Daily Show || Half-Hour News Hour || Comedy shows that mock the news. || Half-Hour was meant to be the conservative version of The Daily Show. || People tuned in to Half-Hour to see if conservatives can be funny. They weren't in this case, and that show was cancelled after one season. Winner: The Daily Show. ||
 * True Blood || The Vampire Diaries || Based on a book/series, featuring the attraction between a[n apparently] human woman and two vampires. || Diaries' two vampires are brothers, and the older one wants to kill the apparently human woman because she resembles the vampire who sired them; while True Blood is an ensemble show that focuses more on vampire "culture" at large. Plus, True Blood being on HBO means it can be more liberal in the sex, violence and general edginess department. || Ratings between network and paid HBO are difficult to compare. Also, the reviews seem to mirror each other: Diaries is lauded as a show that is not as kitschy as its marketing, while True Blood bathes in its kitsch, to its benefit. ||
 * Leverage || White Collar || Skilled and rather flamboyant thief/thieves are recruited by the good guys to create some Asshole Victims. ||The difference is with their employers - Leverage's Nate is initially out for revenge and then takes up the charge to fight evil himself while White Collars conman is employed by the government. ||
 * Supernatural || Night Stalker || A pair of humans investigate paranormal and demonic activity while looking for clues about a particular demon. || Night Stalker, a remake of Kolchak the Night Stalker, starred Dorian Gray and was canceled after one season. || Supernatural is still around and torturing its two leads for our viewing pleasure. ||
 * Supernatural || Reaper || Supernatural dramas focusing on hunting monsters from hell. || Both aired on The CW at the same time, with Reaper premiering during Supernatural's third season. Reaper replied on comedic elements more heavily than Supernatural, which was much darker and gritty, and focused more on drama. || While both have strong, cult followings, Reaper lasted only two seasons, while Supernatural is currently entering it's eighth.
 * Robot Wars || Battlebots || Demoliton Derby with tricked-out, remote controlled robots. || Battlebots actually was created to compete with the British version of the original Robot Wars. Robot Wars was strictly about the robot-on-robot violence. Battlebots tried to emphasize the human element - with more time given to competitor backstory and announcer wackiness. || Battlebots debuted near the end of Robot Wars'  run, so they went out at about the same time. Robot Wars is much more fondly remembered. 'Bots is remembered mostly for Jaime Hyneman, Adam Savage and Grant Imahara being competitors. ||
 * The First 48 || The Squad || True Crime shows merging Cops and Homicide Life On the Street || The First 48 covers two cases from different cities like Miami, Dallas, and Memphis. The Squad follows the Indianapolis PD's Homicide squad exclusively, going more in depth with the cases. ||
 * Family Matters || The Fresh Prince of Bel Air || Family Sitcoms staring black families.||Both shows debuted a year apart from each other. Both have the fathers working in law and had heart attacks, annoying drop in characters, Hollywood nerds, the mothers' original actors quitting and being replaced, babies who developed Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome and characters that are not in the intermediate family became the most memorable.|| Both are fondly remembered and were very successful, although thanks to stronger characterization Fresh Prince got more respect critically. ||
 * Burn Notice || Royal Pains || A man is blacklisted from his profession and moves to an exotic location to sell his services privately. || Essentially the same premise, but substituting spy for doctor. Another aspect the shows share is the wisecracking and incompetent brother of the main character. Both are on the USA Network. || Royal Pains has been renewed for a second season. Meanwhile, Burn Notice recently wrapped up its third season, was renewed for a fourth, and has already been picked up for a fifth and sixth. ||
 * Victorious || Shake It Up ||Kid Com, one about a girl at a performing arts school, another about two girls joining each other on a dance show. || Both shows usually involve wacky situations. Victorious often involves singing, plays, and other various skits. Shake It Up features a Show Within a Show concept, much like the other Disney/Nick live action matchup. ||Both shows are fairly new, nowadays they're about equal ratings-wise (though Victorious seems to be more enjoyed), and Bella Thorne was won an award. ||
 * Victorious || How to Rock ||Two Kid Coms, one about a girl at a performing arts school, the other about an Alpha Bitch who loses her popularity and joins a pop-rock group at her school. || Like the above, both shows usually involve wacky situations. As mentioned, Victorious often involves singing, plays, and other various skits, while How To Rock mostly features music and devotes the non-musical scenes to exploring the True Companions relationship between the members of Gravity 5 and Kacey's struggling not to fall back into her old ways. ||Victorious has experience on it's side, but some fans feel that the show is starting to slip. How To Rock is relatively new, but has consistently pulled in strong ratings. Which show will come out ahead remains to be seen. ||
 * The Twilight Zone || The Outer Limits || An anthology show of fantasy/science fiction stories, always having a narrator open and end each episode. || Similar in premise, though there are a few subtle differences (for example, The Outer Limits was a full hour, whereas in the original The Twilight Zone only season 4 episodes were that long). Both series had at least one revival. || The original version of The Twilight Zone did better than the original version of The Outer Limits; it lasted five seasons in contrast to The Outer Limits' two, and is usually better remembered. Adding up the total number of episodes from the original series and revivals, The Twilight Zone stands at 265 episodes, and The Outer Limits at 203. ||
 * The O'Reilly Factor || Countdown With Keith Olbermann || Hour-long opinion shows featuring hosts with wildly-inflated egos. || Olbermann is the liberal, O'Reilly is the conservative. || Unsurprisingly split among party lines: More conservatives watch O'Reilly's show, while liberals tended to go for Olbermann. In terms of viewership, O'Reilly consistently won, while Olbermann got more Internet buzz. Countdown was cancelled on MSNBC in 2011 and quickly picked up by Current TV. It enjoyed great success, despite being on an independent and hard-to-find cable network, but in 2012 Olbermann was fired from Current and is currently off the air. So technically O'Reilly won, but Olbermann's protégés at the two networks (Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Cenk Uygur) are doing well enough on their own to be considered legacy victories. ||
 * Knight Rider || Street Hawk || An injured police officer is given a new secret identity and a super vehicle to fight crime with. || This time ABC tries to follow NBC's lead on a motorcycle without a mind of its own. Remote-controlled by the Government. || How many people have actually even heard of Street Hawk? ||
 * I Carly || Sonny With a Chance || Kid Com including a Show Within a Show || Carly, Freddie Benson and Sam run their own webshow, and deal with growing up. Hilarity Ensues. Sonny Monroe joins the cast of a sketch comedy show, and tries to deny falling in love with Chad Dylan Cooper. Hilarity Ensues || Rumours persist that Sonny With a Chance was ripped off a pitch for what eventually became I Carly. Whilst Disney's Sonny With a Chance isn't bad, Nick's iCarly wins ratings wise, and attracts a huge following outside the usual demo's due to constantly Getting Crap Past the Radar, and has a huge Internet following. The latter, however, due to the lead's departure, ended up having its Show Within a Show to be defictionalized.||
 * Mike Nelson's Riff Trax || Joel Hodgson's Cinematic Titanic || Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni do their best to Hollywood's worst || Riff Trax started the post-MSTie film commentary revival by making audio-only downloads that take aim at more mainstream films than MST3K had access to. Soon after, Mike's predecessor started his own similar project, but as DVDs that stick more closely to the original formula: more obscure (and license-able) B-movies, silhouettes in front of the films, and sketches. || Riff Trax has a larger catalog (due to its head start and faster production process) and more mainstream appeal, while Cinematic Titanic seems aimed at old-school fans. Many say that there's room for both to be winners. ||
 * I Survived... (Bio) || I'm Alive (Animal Planet) || Ordinary people relate their tales of near-death || Survived focuses on accidents and surviving murder attempts. Alive deals with animal atacks. || Both are guaranteed to make you feel depressed and hopeless after watching them. ||
 * Top Gear || Fifth Gear || British motoring programme. || Both started in 2002 as attempts to relaunch the BBC’s original Top Gear. Channel Five planned to acquire the name and relaunch the programme as was, but the BBC wouldn’t sell. In the end, Fifth Gear employed a similar title, along with the magazine format and several of the original show’s presenters. Half a year later, the BBC relaunched Top Gear with a revamped "automotive fun and games with the lads" format, and much slicker production. || Since the duel started in 2002, they’ve kept roughly level pegging on episode and series numbers. However, Top Gear rose to become one of the most watched shows in the world. Fifth Gear didn’t, doing little to improve Channel Five’s disappointing viewing figures, and had to fend off cancellation in 2009. ||
 * Life After People || Aftermath: Population Zero || What happens after After the End || Just about the only thing preventing outright intellectual infringement is the fact that both shows are documentaries based on a general concept that's not even original to either show (cashing in on the "what would happen if humans vanish?" craze due to the book "The World Without Us" the previous year) though Aftermath features humans disappearing Rapture-style while Life After People goes out of its way to stay mum on the subject || The National Geographic Channel's Aftermath: Population Zero remained a one-time special, but after The History Channel execs discovered that Life After People was literally their highest-rated program ever, they immediately approved a series version. ||
 * Modern Family || Parenthood ||Comedy series about the different kinds of families in the 21st century (straight, gay, step, single-parent, interracial, young, experienced), all found under one extended family headed by classic TV patriarchs Al Bundy and Coach (Mr. Incredible or an redemption-seeking ice-skating coach to you young'uns), respectively. ||Parenthood had the undignified burden of being the first 10pm show to try to fix the damage Jay Leno wrought on the NBC schedule, but has the credentials of Ron Howard producing and a who's who of the best actors and actresses of the last three decades; Modern Family has Ed O'Neill returning in front of the camera (ironically, playing a role originally intended for Craig T. Nelson who now stars in Parenthood, Frasier alumni Scott Levitt and Christopher Lloyd (no, not that one, actually) behind it, rave reviews so far and having two if its stars in the Maxim 100 (including Sofia Vergara being on it for three years straight). || Too soon to tell, but Modern Family is the clear ratings winner for the time being. ||
 * Big Time Rush || I'm In the Band || Shows about young men who rather arbitrarily end up in the music industry in bands. Tween Sit Coms premiering at around the same time. || One has FOUR young adults for the male audience to look up to and the tween (and teen) girls to swoon over (hence the Boy Band), while the other only has one (and he's Putting the Band Back Together). One show has more music production (Big Time Rush) || Big Time Rush; they've made small dents on Billboard and iTunes while I'm In The Band has yet to make an impact. And at least Big Time Rush doesn't use the laugh track. ||
 * Spaced || Black Books || Eccentric Channel 4 Brit-coms featuring eccentric characters, with little in the way of sets or budgets. Both co-written by its stars. Turned into Duelers by their side-by-side broadcasts on 4. || Spaced had the larger and younger cast and had more in visual gags and fourth-wall breaking; Black Books relied more on dialogue. || Both achieved cult status but Spaced has outlasted its sister-show. The rivalry is quite affectionate and just about all the cast from both appear on Black Books as guest stars or in Pegg and Wright's films. ||
 * Food Feuds (Food Network) || Food Wars (Travel Channel) || Local restaurants with the same signature dish go head to head to see who's version is better. || Three main diffenences: The hosts ("Feuds" boasts Iron Chef Michael Symon, "Wars" has stage actress Camille Ford), the judging (Symon does the judging on "Feuds", "Wars" has a panel of 2-4 judges) and the focus ("Wars" features the local culture the rival eateries. "Feuds" focuses on the cooking and ingredients) || Too early to call. But "Feuds" does itself no favors by featuring (in its promos) locations already covered by "Wars." ||
 * Hoarders (A&E) || Hoarding: Buried Alive (TLC) || Documentary series about compulsive hoarders || Hoarders chronicles the effort to professionally clean an entire home and to provide mental health services for the homeowners. Hoarding focuses less on the home and more on the disorder itself. Cleaning services are provided by the subject's friends and family. || Hoarders broke A&E's ratings records when it premiered and had a one year head start. ||
 * Tosh 0 || Web Soup || The Soup-inspired snarky weekly rundowns of viral videos. || Comedy Central's Tosh sticks mostly to YouTube stuff and viewer submissions and its signature "Web Redemption" segment. G4's Web Soup is more Attack of the Show's "Epic Fail" segments meets The Soup, using AOTS-style graphics. || It really depends on your style of comedy, with Tosh being more straightforward, while Web Soup delves into sketch comedy and absurdist comedy. It also has the all-important Blessing of McHale, along with Chris Hardwick, who has been on TV for years and has built a good Internet following. ||
 * 2 Broke Girls (CBS) || Don't Trust the B In Apartment 23 (ABC) || Likeable naive blond girl, suddenly faced with adverse economic circumstances, becomes roommate with cynical dark-haired opposite. || 2 Broke Girls has a Laugh Track and the two work at the same diner in Brooklyn, trying to raise money to start a cupcake business; Don't Trust the B In Apartment 23 is set in Manhattan, with James Van Der Beek playing a camp version of himself as a supporting character. || Too soon to tell. Both shows have been renewed for a second season. ||
 * Clarice (Lifetime) || Hannibal (NBC) || Shows based on Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs. || The titles are indicative; Clarice will focus on the titular agent Starling soon after she graduates from the FBI academy, while Hannibal is made by Bryan Fuller and is about the cannibal Serial Killer and his relationship with FBI criminal profiler Will Graham. || Too soon to call. ||
 * Dual Survival || Man Woman Wild || Man vs. Wild meets The Odd Couple || Dual involves two survival experts of vastly different backgrounds and philosophies (One is an ex-military hunter, the other is a hardcore naturalist). Man Woman involves an ex-military survival expert and his wife, an actress and field reporter. || Both are ongoing and both have good ratings and fan followings. ||
 * Justified || Longmire || Dramas about misanthropic modern lawmen evoking the Wild West, both based on popular book series || Justified has just been renewed for a fourth season on FX while Longmire just premiered on A&E, to mostly positive reviews || Too early to tell, but Justified has the advantage of being on a more exposed network. ||