# Are there Leno & Letterman style "Late Night" type shows in other countries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803 "2004-12-03T00:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/1 "2004-12-03T00:02:07Z")
What _do_ you non-US dopers watch after the 11:00 PM news? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/2 "2004-12-03T00:19:27Z")
[Rove Live](http://www.rove.com.au) in Australia, but it’s not as late in the evening, and it’s only one day a week, and it’s already shut up shop for the year. But quite clearly based around the Late Night Talk Show format. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/3 "2004-12-03T01:11:01Z")
New Zealand gets both Letterman and Rove Live. Sad attemps are made from time to time to develop a Kiwi version of a late night talk show, but we politely ignore them and they go away pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/4 "2004-12-03T01:15:29Z")
In Germany there have been several attempts, but most failed. But there was one very succesful show, the “Harald Schmidt Show”. It started out as a copy of Letterman, but during his 8 year run Schmidt developed his very own style. Several different, constantly changing styles actually. But sadly, exactly one year ago, he suddenly announced that he was going to quit. ☹ His last show was the day before christmas. He will be starting a new show, this year the day before christmas, but only half an hour two days a week while his old show was one hour four, later five days a week. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/5 "2004-12-03T02:48:00Z")
Is it true _The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson_ flopped miserably in the UK? Different senses of humor or something…? I just don’t know how you get by with only four channels! Does everybody get some kind of satellite TV? ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/6 "2004-12-03T03:07:40Z")
Australia had _Micallef Tonight_ last year, too. Lasted about four months I think. Shaun Micallef is great at both intellectual sketches and slapstick, but he was like a nervous little schoolboy when doing serious interviews. Also, you could sort of tell that the network was trying to pull him in a more commercial, standard interview-style direction, while he was trying to do his own thing, and the end result was probably confusing to most viewers. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/7 "2004-12-03T03:34:57Z")
There are and have been a number of similar shows in Canada, both in English and French. I think the French shows, like [Le grand blond avec un show sournois](http://legrandblond.tva.ca/), [Patrice L’Écuyer](http://www.radio-canada.ca/television/reportages/0112/lecuyer/) and the old Ad Lib are more notable as the format closely matches that of American talk shows, while being broadcast in a language other than English. The format of television shows in Japan is quite different from that of American shows. There are shows hosted by comedians where celebrities come to chat. One of the most famous ones is HEY!HEY!HEY!, hosted by Downtown, a duo of comedians. All of their guests are musicians, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/8 "2004-12-03T04:27:01Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > There are and have been a number of similar shows in Canada, both in English and French. I think the French shows, like [Le grand blond avec un show sournois](http://legrandblond.tva.ca/), [Patrice L’Écuyer](http://www.radio-canada.ca/television/reportages/0112/lecuyer/) and the old Ad Lib are more notable as the format closely matches that of American talk shows, while being broadcast in a language other than English. Hey, don’t forget Mike Bullard. Seriously, _somebody_ should be willing to not have that horrific memory purged, if only for the historical footnote value. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/9 "2004-12-03T04:31:49Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Hey, don’t forget Mike Bullard. > > Seriously, _somebody_ should be willing to not have that horrific memory purged, if only for the historical footnote value. C’mon, Tom Green took a _dead raccoon_ on his show. That’s gotta count for something. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/10 "2004-12-03T04:35:59Z")
I don’t remember if he was late-night, but I’m suddenly having flashbacks of the BBC’s Terry Wogan, circa 1984 . . . :eek: I remember some joker calling his fans TWITS, because they belonged to the Terry Wogan Is Tops Society. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/11 "2004-12-03T06:06:31Z")
> [@astro](#): > > What _do_ you non-US dopers watch after the 11:00 PM news? _Letterman_😃 It’s weird though. The delay on the broadcast in Australia seems odd. Sometimes it seems to be several weeks behind the US, and other times only a day or two. One of the most embarrassing episodes in Australian television was a late show run in the early nineties by a bloke called Steve Vizard. It wasn’t badly made, and it had its moments, but it was embarrassing because they didn’t even try to hide thefact that it was a direct rip of Letterman. They were banking on Australians not being familiar with Letterman’s show, which wasn’t broadcast here at the time. Vizard adopted the same mannerisms and hand movements, he had a wisecracking musician leading the band, a coffee mug, a Top Ten list, the works. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/12 "2004-12-03T14:12:07Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Is it true _The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson_ flopped miserably in the UK? Different senses of humor or something…? Never heard of it ever having a UK run, though I suppose it’s possible. Some of the current US chat shows do run on satellite and cable channels. The UK chat show host most associated with copying Letterman was Jonathan Ross, back when he was on Channel 4, nigh on two decades ago. That was only successful for a bit, though Ross currently has a very high profile BBC1 chat show late on a Friday night. However, the notion of running a chat show 5 nights a week has also been successfully used in the UK, just not really in the same time slot as the US shows. _Wogan_ ran through the 80s in an early evening slot and both Ross and Graham Norton tried similarish scheduling. Norton also ran at 10.30 every week night for a while, but that idea exhausted itself (and the supply of worthwhile guests) pretty quickly. Where the influence has probably been greatest is in people adopting bits of the idea elsewhere. For example, Paul O’Grady’s current ITV series is essentially a lower budget version of Letterman, but showing at 5 pm every day to an audience whose profile is presumably more daytime than late night. The influence is also even there in _Today With Des and Mel_, which runs at lunchtime, though obviously neither of the presenters could be described as coming from stand-up comedy, so there isn’t that element to it. But, _Wogan_ apart, the most prestigious UK chat shows have always been once-a-week affairs. > [@](#): > > I just don’t know how you get by with only four channels! Does everybody get some kind of satellite TV? Certainly not yet. Though there’s a push to get everybody to adopt digital - which brings a wider range of channels - ahead of supposedly switching off the analogue signal in a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/13 "2004-12-03T14:56:51Z")
The Arab World has a nightly 'Tonight" kind of show out of Cairo. Host, sidekick, couch for the guests. The whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/14 "2004-12-03T18:27:35Z")
There have been attempts in many countries, but most of them have failed. We have a weekly incarnation, similar to what GuanoLad mentioned. I simply don’t think they can be made: 1. Not enough people in one market. Meaning that there isn’t enough revenue from commercials. And let’s face it - doing a show like that takes a BIG staff. Check out the amount of writers, whenever they do a scroll on Leno or Letterman. It’s a big production and one guy can’t come up with enough good material for an hourly show five times a week. 2. Not enough guests. Even Leno and Letterman suffer from this occasionally and one is in LA, the other in NY. With the whole entertainment industry to pick from, they still come up with quite a few dud shows, from lack of good guests. Imagine a smaller market. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/15 "2004-12-03T18:41:10Z")
Finland gets Conan, and his show is quite popular. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/16 "2004-12-03T20:45:52Z")
Does _Ireland_ get Conan? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-leno-letterman-style-late-night-type-shows-in-other-countries/277803/17 "2004-12-03T23:21:06Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > _Letterman_It’s weird though. The delay on the broadcast in Australia seems odd. Sometimes it seems to be several weeks behind the US, and other times only a day or two. Every six weeks or so, the Late Show has a week off, and they show old episodes from a few months prior. We see the same episodes as the US does, only 12 hours afterward.