Rip-off

YSTV has a long, proud history of producing unadulterated rip-offs and parodies of other channels' programming. Here's a list of some of them, starting with the obvious steals:

• Now Get Into This - Now Get Out of That
• Never Mind The Rip-Off - Never Mind The Buzzcocks
• 50% - 100%
• Have I Got News For YUSU - Have I Got News For You
• Whose YSTV is it Anyway - Whose Line Is It Anyway?
• URYVision Song Contest - Eurovison Song Contest (we can blame URY for this one!)
• Summer Expedition - Blue Peter have been doing this idea for 40 years
• YSTV's Bloomers - Auntie's Bloomers
• Welcome To Venus - Loose Women

YSTV were approached in late 2003 to produce a rip-off of The Office called The Union, transferring Slough to Heslington, but this was never made.

Although not direct rip-offs the following owe a lot to other shows:

• Jim'll Sodomise You - parody of Jim'll Fix It (alledgedly)
• The Hand Job - charades game like Give Us A Clue
• YSTV-am - inspired by The Big Breakfast and a name derived from TV-am
• Lazy Lunch - Name comes from C4's Late/Light Lunch but this show had no cookery whatsoever
• This Afternoon - named as a parody of This Morning, was a similar magazine show
• Campus Today - again featuring This Morning-style set-up and theme tune
• Games Disaster - take-off of Games Master's name but only the first series was much like the C4 show
• Off The Cuff - setup very reminiscent of the Children's BBC broom cupboard
• This Is YOUR: Manifesto - theme tune, title and red book are from This Is Your Life
• Children In Need - not really a rip-off but inspired by BBC telethon of the same name
• Good Morning Campus - name derives from Good Morning Britain but show was more like BBC Breakfast

LipSync deserves an honourable mention for all the rounds it has ripped-off from other panel shows over the years! Limited Edition has also played fast-and-loose with features from mainstream TV, including TopGear's Star in a Reasonably Priced Car being honoured with Star in a Remote Control Car.

Finally, YSTV were ripped-off in a way when around a year after Stereotypes was made, a very similar programme called "He Says, She Says" was broadcast on BBC2 - and the title of which was a working title for Stereotypes!