In the end though, America has long been disinterested in foreign culture, so it's not too surprising that TV execs concerned with the bottom-line would try to tailor these shows to an American audience that doesn't like listening to people with "funny accents".
Putting a foreign show on the air is a risk, and TV doesn't like risks. But I think the bigger factor is that American TV honchos want to own the properties they invest in, rather than buy rights from someone else. What if the show is a big hit? Then they've made someone else's property a big hit, and might not be able to get the rights to do a spinoff series or capitalize on it in other ways.
If you remake a foreign show, then you have all the rights and can do what you want. TV is a hit-driven business and nobody can afford to miss that one hit that pays for all the rest of your shows that flop.
(I guess even NBC execs thought it would be silly to refilm a show about Camelot with American actors!)
Why not? Just have American actors do fake English accents well enough to pass muster with an American audience. The important thing is that NBC would own that version of "Camelot" and if it were a big hit, they could do spinoffs starring some of the characters which they can't do with
Merlin, so why go to all the trouble of giving
Merlin a good timeslot (not that they did) and promotion when it's a dead end for NBC?
Maybe the writers strike did it, but I think NBC put
Merlin on the air as part of their dumbass "cheapo" strategy that also put
Leno on 5 x week. Hopefully they have now learned (re-learned) that to make money, you have to spend money. The cheap way out won't work.
