I believe I mentioned "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader?" which I saw when I was in the US. It was obviously an original, smart and actually entertaining gameshow - more obvious by the fact that it's sometimes referred to as "Mark Burnett's AYSTFG?". This tells me only a successful TV producer can get something this original on US TV.
I don't think a show like [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Einstein_Factor|The Einstien Factor] would be popular on US TV (partly there are no prizes), but the Brits might like it. OTOH, the US Survivor rates well here - yet when we tried to make one ourselves, it failed badly. Apparantly Australians don't have the sense of competitiveness necessary for the US format to work. Yet the Australian Celebrity Survivor worked... Hmm. For comparison, Big Brother rates well here: but it was invented by a European TV company not an American one, so that may help explain it. Plus we customise it considerably (but all BB franchisees do) and they put a lot of work into choosing the housemates.
Wade.