Russian

Pole chudes (“field of miracles”; in Russian Поле чудес) is the Russian equivalent of Wheel of Fortune. It started in 1990 and is still going, and there are well more than 1,000 episodes. The game rules are pretty similar to Wheel of Fortune. The contestants guess words or phrases on a given topic, taking turns […]

Comedy Club (no Russian title) is a highly popular Russian stand-up comedy show. The show began airing in 2005 and surpassed its 500th episode in December 2016; as of this writing, there are almost 530. According to the show’s website on TV channel TNT, “The residents’ jokes live in our consciousnesses … they are called […]

Uralskie Pelmeni (Уральские пельмены; “pelmeni from the Urals”) is a Russian sketch comedy group originally from Ekaterinburg. They started out as a KVN team in 1993, winning the Highest League (Высшая лига) of KVN in 2000. As a result of their KVN popularity, they were able to start their own sketch comedy show in 2009, […]

Wait for Me (Жди мне) is a Russian talk/reality show, though quite unlike what that that genre usually means. It’s not only a TV show but a government service for finding missing people. It’s termed an international social project, just just a TV show—the show notes that “We search throughout the entire world and unite […]

While Everyone’s Home (Пока все дома) is a TV entertainment/talk show that’s been airing since 1992. There are now 25 seasons. The show follows the host, Timur Kizyakov (Тимур Кизяков), who also writes the show, as he visits various famous people and their families at home. As the show’s website notes, “While Everyone’s Home is […]

Galileo (Галилео) is a Russian popular science/talk show. It’s been around in various formats since 2007; new episodes have not aired since 2015, but supposedly the show has not actually been canceled. Episodes in the first five seasons were a half hour; episodes in the next nine were 45 minutes. The show is based on […]

KVN (КВН; Клуб весёлых и находчивых, or “Club of funny and inventive people”) is a famous Russian sketch-comedy show and game show. It’s been running on and off (mostly on) since 1961—it barely even skipped a beat during the fall of the Soviet Union. For its humor, mentality, popularity, and long-running-ness (and its three-letter title), […]

Interny (Interns, Russian: Интерны) was a Russian sitcom from the TNT (ТНТ) network. It ran from 2010 to 2016. The series features the trials and tribulations of a group of four young medical interns, their mentor Andrey Bykov (Андрей Быков), and the other hospital workers. The show has an original plot line, though many comparisons […]