Late Show UK

Diva TV +1 will be launching on Sky on or around the 7th August 2008. This means from August, the Late Show With David Letterman can be seen on Diva TV at 11pm on Saturdays & Sundays, and at midnight on Saturdays & Sundays on Diva TV +1. Diva TV +1 is currently testing on Sky.

AGB Nielsen Media Research - Diva TV +1

Diva TV will move the Late Show With David Letterman from it’s current 10pm timeslot to 11pm from the start of next month. Diva TV has only been airing the Late Show at weekends for several weeks now, since they axed it from Monday-Friday in favour of other shows.

From the 2nd August the Late Show will air at 11pm on Saturdays and Sundays, and still remains absent from the Monday-Friday schedules.

Diva TV - Listings for week commencing 28th July 2008
Diva TV - Have Your Say - Late Show With David Letterman

The nominations for this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards are in, and some of your favourite talk shows & comedy shows are up for the “Variety, Music or Comedy Series” award - The Colbert Report (Comedy Central), The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central), the Late Show With David Letterman (CBS), Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO) and Saturday Night Live (NBC) are all nominated. This year will be the 60th edition of the Primetime Emmy Awards. The ceremony will take place on Sunday 21st September in Los Angeles.

The official website for the Primetime Emmy Awards
Digital Spy - “‘Mad Men’, ‘30 Rock’ dominate Emmy noms”

One of my favourite sites at the moment is ‘Behind The Late Show’. It’s mostly a video blog showing guests entering and leaving the Late Show and some other videos of David Letterman, etc out and about. It gives a real insight into the behind-the-scenes bits of the Late Show. It didn’t launch that long ago, but looks great already. Check it out.

Late Show UK - Our Favourite Websites

I’ve just had a response from NBC Univeral regarding Diva TV and the Late Show With David Letterman, and whether it was being axed from weekends from August onwards (as the schedules on the website suggest this at the moment). However I have been assured the Late Show “will be remaining on Diva TV on the weekends” and “has not been removed from the schedule all together” which is good news.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the Diva TV schedules over recent weeks, since the Late Show With David Letterman was cut down to a mere two episodes a week - one on Saturdays and one on Sundays. According to the latest schedules on their website, there is no sign of the Late Show With David Letterman on weekends from Saturday 2nd August onwards. This is also the case if you go to the single day page for the 2nd August. If these schedules are the final listings for these days, this is terrible news for Letterman fans in the UK. The Late Show has been on many different channels over the years and UK fans are getting increasingly frustrated not being able to watch their favourite show.

Diva TV’s decision to cut the number of episodes down to two a week came after they said they wanted to only show episodes with guests that British audiences would know. However, fans know we all watch the show for Dave and not the guests most of the time. Diva TV seems to air the Late Show just because it has celebrities on it, and not for Dave’s standup, comedy asides and humour. I have emailed Diva TV to ask for confirmation for the August schedules but am yet to hear back from them. As soon as I do, I will post further details on our website.

In the meantime, please register on the Diva TV message board (the Have Your Say area) to show there’s an audience who wants to see the Late Show on Diva TV. Click here for the Have Your Say message board for the Late Show. You can also contact them by phoning 020 7368 9100 and you can email them at feedbackuk@hallmarkchannel.tv.

Late Show With David Letterman programme page on the Diva TV website

It’s great to see British press reviewing the Late Show With David Letterman, and this review was a real treat. Letterman has been called a “legend” and “subversive genius” in a new glowing review at The Guardian. The blog entry also mentions Diva TV - who air the Late Show in the UK - which is quite a touchy subject at the moment with us Dave fans since Diva TV have reduced their Letterman output to a mere two episodes a week.

The Guardian hit the nail on the head with their thoughts about Diva TV. They say - “oddly - and solely, one presumes - because of its celebrity content, you will also find The Late Show with David Letterman”. Speaking of Letterman, they say he’s “on marvellous form”. They also say he’s “a master of the smart-guy-playing-it-dumb stratagem, and once again looks like a subversive genius”. To read the review in full, click on the link below to The Guardian’s website.

The Guardian - “Discover the legend that is Letterman … On Diva TV”

The Daily Show, the Late Show With David Letterman, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and The Colbert Report have all made it into Entertainment Weekly’s “100 best shows from 1983 to 2008″ list. Check out their positions below.

14    The Daily Show, Comedy Central (1996-present)
30    Late Show With David Letterman, CBS (1993-present)
43    Late Night With Conan O’Brien, NBC (1993-present)
58    The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, NBC (1992-present)
69    The Colbert Report, Comedy Central (2005-present)

Entertainment Weekly (EW.com) - “The New Classics: TV” - The list in full

The brand new and exclusive official music video for ‘The Late Show Theme’ is now available at cbs.com/lateshow. This new version of the famous theme tune is more punchy and the video looks great. Paul Shaffer described this new version as “the full-length theme song with a jazzy sax solo, then a guitar babble at the end” in the recent Late Show newsletter. They used green screen for most of it and had New York scenes on it behind them. The video was produced exclusively for the web so you won’t see it on TV.

Watch the ‘Late Show Theme’ video here.
Watch the video on YouTube (uploaded by Neomilan89)

There’s going to be a brand new Late Show Fun Facts book coming out in September featuring the latest facts from the Federal Bureau Of Miscellaneous Information. This will be the first Late Show With David Letterman official book in the last ten years. Fun Facts has been a regular feature on the Late Show for the past few years. Dave always tells us some are fun, some are thought-provoking and others mean nothing.

An official statement on Hyperion Books’ website says “With tons of Fun Facts collected together for the first time, and never-before-heard insights into the elusive Federal Bureau of Miscellaneous Information, this is sure to be a hit for the holiday season”. One of the Fun Facts they pick out is “the first microwave ovens rotated the food but didn’t cook it”. The book is written by David Letterman and the Late Show writers. The PDF on the Hyperion Books’ official website explains in more detail. Late Show Fun Facts is currently available to preorder from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (current price £7.91), and will be released on the 23rd September in America & the 2nd October in the UK.

Hyperion Books - Fall 2008 releases (PDF - go to page 15 for Late Show Fun Facts)
Late Show UK Store - Preorder the book (just search for Late Show Fun Facts)
Amazon.co.uk - Late Show Fun Facts (preorder today - UK)
Amazon.com - Late Show Fun Facts (preorder today - US)

It’s been a week since the Late Show With David Letterman was axed from the Monday-Friday schedules on Diva TV. We’d just like to remind everyone of the all-important contact details for Diva TV including the changed email address;

Email - feedbackuk@hallmarkchannel.tv
Telephone - 020 7368 9100
Diva TV Website - Have Your Say - The Late Show With David Letterman

Following our post earlier today about the Late Show With David Letterman being axed from Diva TV Monday-Friday from next week according to the Diva TV website, we now have an update from Diva TV. In an email response Diva TV say;

We have moved Late Show with David Letterman from weeknights, to weekends, as we feel that a lot of the programmes that have been coming through of late from the U.S. have a focus on American guests that our UK audience are not really familiar with, so we have decided as a trial run to broadcast the show at the weekends, but picking the best episodes from the week and therefore choosing the programmes that are more relevant. We are broadcasting The Oprah Winfrey Show double episodes as this is proving very popular with our viewers, but we may cut the episodes back to one in a few months time. We are in the process of making changes and experimenting with the schedule and whilst we are sorry that Late Show with David Letterman has been moved out of the weekday schedule at this stage we cannot say if this is going to be a permanent move or not. Also please feel free to keep in touch with any further questions about the changing schedules from August. I can also confirm that it will remain on the weekends until the end of July.

So it has been confirmed that the Late Show With David Letterman will no longer air on Diva TV from next week onwards (9th June) and will remain a fixture on weekends only - confirmed until at least the end of July. The timeslot for the weekend airings will remain the same as now (10pm). As Diva TV say, the weekend shows will be a pick of the two ‘best’ shows of the week. This will mean the Diva TV airings of the Late Show will follow a similar pattern as what CNBC do with their Late Night With Conan O’Brien broadcasts.

Louise Jones was the Diva TV source for quotes in this post.

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8th June 2008 update - The Where To Watch page has now been updated on our website to show the new Diva TV schedules.