Late Show on AllMovie

Two top German television personalities star in this comedy in which they parody the entertainment industry, as well as their own on-air personalities. In Cologne, Germany, the Tele-C network is in deep trouble -- they're stuck in the ratings cellar, the star of their most popular show has just quit, and the moneymen are not at all happy. Program director Conrad Scheffer (Harald Schmidt) thinks he sees a light at the end of the tunnel when he meets the partner of his assistant, Carla Sperling (Jasmin Tabatabai). Hannes Engel (Thomas Gottschalk) is a handsome and personable disc jockey working at a small radio station in the country, and Conrad is convinced he'd be perfect for television. All Conrad has to do is (a) convince Hannes to take the job, (b) get Carla over her belief that Hannes would be making a horrible mistake by going into television, and (c) get the network's current talk show host out of the way. Schmidt and Gottschalk have been called the Jay Leno and David Letterman of German TV, and their presence together made this comedy something of an event in its home country.