Imagine Michael Scott with a British accent, Betty and Wilhelmina only speaking Spanish and a Swedish Jeff Probst proceeding over a tribal council. Sound bizarre? Well, “The Office,” “Ugly Betty,” “Survivor” and more of TV’s current hits are all adaptions of shows from various countries. Viewers may notice a bevy of new adaptations hitting the airwaves this season, from NBC’s “Kath & Kim,” which hails from Australia, to ABC’s take on Britain’s “Life On Mars.”

While there seems to be a large number of adapted shows, this isn’t exactly a new trend according to Matt Roush, the senior television critic with TV Guide.

“This season, it seems it went to critical mass,” Roush said. “And there is some sense that it may have something to do with the fact that the development season was affected by the writers’ strike and they were looking for already-developed concepts and premises that fit their needs. It’s almost like, unless you have a foreign concept or an overseas actor, you don’t have a show.”

Roush cited CBS’ “Eleventh Hour” and ABC’s “Life On Mars” as new shows with foreign actors starring in non-American concepts. But television networks have been importing and remaking shows for ages. The poster child for American sitcoms, “All in the Family,” was based off a British series titled “‘Till Death Do Us Part.” Even “American Idol,” TV’s most-watched show, is based off Britain’s “Pop Idol.” Both programs have Simon Cowell as a judge. Game shows, like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “The Weakest Link,” helped usher in the current wave of adaptation frenzy, according to Roush.

“I think that this idea of shopping for concepts overseas really took off when reality TV hit in a big way,” he said. “’American Idol’ [was a] game changer for the networks and so they have been shopping evermore.”

Dr. Ryan Vaughan, a Binghamton University English professor and television enthusiast, echoed Roush’s statements about American TV and raised a new question.

“I want to say we’re at this lull of creativity,” Vaughan said. “But we’re not. There’s really good stuff on TV. It’s just that that’s not what masses watch. So if we go and take these British ideas that are pretty simple — British TV is just so stripped down, so realist, so not escapist — we take those ideas and then we make them escapist.”

Both Roush and Vaughan stressed that there are quality original programs on the air like “Pushing Daisies” and “30 Rock,” but that mainstream audiences aren’t taking to them. Roush said to look to the Writers Guild of America strike as one cause of these problems.

“They pretty much had to scramble to gather a new season,” Roush said. “There is a sense that the fall season was a bit of a fizzle creatively and otherwise, very few breakout hits, very few critical breakout hits.”

Roush said he hopes mid-season is more promising because the shows have had more time to be groomed and worked on.

“I don’t think there’s nearly as many titles in this next wave that’s coming to us of shows that existed somewhere else,” he said. “Hopefully originality will find its way back on the schedule somewhere. It’s kind of nice to think that something original could work, but it is a tough time for a show that’s too original, like a ‘Pushing Daisies’ or things like ‘30 Rock,’ which struggle in the ratings, but certainly get the awards and critical attention.”

With the success of shows like “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” and “Dr. Who,” two shows imported directly from foreign countries, some might ask why the networks didn’t just import the new shows rather than remake them. Roush was quick to point out that several of the newly launched shows based on foreign ideas have run on cable channels, but that trend remains in the cable sector.

“There aren’t as many episodes, it doesn’t work [the major network model] that much,” he said. “And there’s a sense that if you have a show that completely speaks in a different accent that people won’t accept it on the American networks. The idea is you translate it, you make it something the American audience will embrace — if you’re lucky.”

Roush said NBC’s “Kath & Kim” could be the next adaption disaster replacing NBC’s “Coupling” as the most network-hyped and critical crash and burn. But he said if importing show ideas can give us another successful sitcom adaption like “All in the Family” in the age of sensationalized procedural dramas, then he is for it.

“We definitely would love to have an ‘All in the Family,’” Roush said. “Or the next ‘Friends,’ or whatever, and if we have to go overseas, that’s fine by all means.”