ATV World's nightly broadcasts of the Late Show With David Letterman (World 11.16pm) have been a welcome addition to the local television line-up since they began airing at the start of the year.
Sure, Letterman's jokes and routines are corny and often repetitive, but at least the show provides local viewers with some good jokes that are topical. It also provides a window to the latest happenings in film and TV and great musical guests.
But as someone who grew up in Canada, I understand the jokes that are often about obscure North American figures (such as the frequently mentioned American morning chat-show host, Regis Philbin) and are likely at times to go over the heads of most Asian and expatriate viewers.
Letterman's humour often does not travel well and this appears to be the case in the US, too, as the programme has been taking a beating in the ratings from The Tonight Show, starring Jay Leno.
According to a recent report in The Washington Post, Leno's Los Angeles-based programme has beaten Letterman's in the Nielsen ratings for 200 of the past 205 weeks. The programme's ratings have become so bad that Letterman now has less than half the viewership he had when he made his much-publicised jump from NBC to CBS in 1993.
Nonetheless, CBS officials see no cause for alarm, according to the report, as the Late Show has strong support from premium advertisers, something that does not appear to be the case in Hong Kong, judging by the lack of adverts during the show.
