It certainly used to be aired over here – ITV2 screened it until mid-2005, thereafter it was shown on ITV4 until – best guess – the end of 2006?

Don’t know if ITV4 attracts a massive audience or not…

After the ITV runs, it moved to well-down-the-Sky-EPG Diva TV until late 2008, but hasn’t been seen since.

The closest you get to Letterman is Jay Leno on CNBC at 11pm here in the UK at the moment

I suspect that most of the major channels don’t want to take it as a lot of the humour would be lost on the average British viewer, especially that based on American politics and news, while it’s probably too expensive for the smaller channels to screen.

I’m surprised that there haven’t been more recent efforts, however, to copy the format. There’s been some notable ones over the years – Five launched with Jack Docherty as a key part of their schedule – However it’s never quite worked over here in the long-term. That’s probably the bigger mystery.

Lots of copies of the format, including the Jonathan Ross show and the current Graham Norton show – comedy routine at the top, then big star interviews. The difficulty is doing it daily, of course: hard to find the kind of guests you need.

There was also something similar on Sky Channel’s early days (now Sky One) – with “do they mean me?” Derek Jameson.

That’s what I mean, James – I’m surprised that there’s not been more concerted efforts to do it daily recently.

Another reason that Letterman may not be on here, albeit a speculative one, could be the frequent plugs for American shows that aren’t aired here (at least at the time that would be plugged). It’d confuse viewers, and also undermine their screenings here – Sky, for example, are unlikely to wish to expose that they’re showing a series with a delay to the original broadcast.

David Letterman has been aired on…

Sky One
Paramount Comedy
ITV2
Diva TV

He’s certainly been around the block over here.

As Ash says it has been screened on various channels over the years, but was never a huge hit over here. I think a lot of these American chat shows are a bit “full on” for British viewers, the audience screaming and shouting after every few sentences gets very grating for me at least.

Letterman’s nomadic nature across channels should give you a clue as to the problem. I gather the licensing fees for the broadcast are quite hefty compared to other syndicated shows, but he remains very much cult viewing here – as a result the shows never pull in quite enough of an audience to justify the cost of screening it.

Initial deals to air the show are therefore very rarely renewed.

FTN also aired David Letterman and also if I recall shifted to ITV4 briefly?

I think FTN only broadcast Jay Leno, not Letterman.

I suspect part of the problem is the compliance costs.

Letterman isn’t a show that can simply be recorded off the satellite and broadcast in the UK. If you did that, you’d be paying more to OfCom than you were to Letterman!