Asia Uncut is the first and only pan-Asian late night chat show. We spoke to the host, Jon Niermann, about the program and its recent move from Singapore to Shanghai. The first episodes shot here air on Star World weekly from 17 January.

What is this Asia Uncut thing?

I came out to Hong Kong in 1998 – I was working with Disney at the time running their television business – and I had always wanted a talk show where visiting celebrities could go and promote their products and movies and concerts and all of that, and also where, as English-speaking residents, we could learn more about some of the Asian stars who typically sing or perform in their native voice. Our show gives them that format.

Who have you had on the show in the past?

We took James Blunt out in Chinatown in Singapore and we made him sing ‘You’re Beautiful’ on a karaoke machine in an electronics shop. We had Ethan Hawke out at the Singapore zoo. We had Carina Lam who is a Hong Kong actress, Fan Wong, a Singapore actress. We actually did 100 interviews last year – we had a comedian and a band or musical performer pretty much every show – and then we did some remotes from Los Angeles and we had Jennifer Garner, Mathew McConaughey, and we’ve got Ed Norton coming out here on Tuesday.

Wait, 100 interviews for 13 episodes?

It was a little bit crazy. That was one of the things we fixed. We just did too many. We didn’t have any monologue or opening comedy so we’ve adjusted that this year. This year the first 10 to 15 minutes is going to be more about monologue, comedy, observational news, weird news stories around Asia, things like that.

What was the response to the first season of Asia Uncut like?

We were nominated for the best talk show for the Asian Television Awards, which is really the only industry recognition in Asia – not bad after our first season. We also won for best entertainment presenter.

“We”? Don’t be modest.

You don’t go, hey, man, I won an award! That kind of sounds stupid, but you’ve got to get that out there to show a little bit of credibility, right?

Of course. What background do you have as a performer?

None in front of the camera. I was a corporate guy and I’m still a corporate guy. I worked at Disney for 15 years and I’ve worked at EA for six years. I’m president of EA’s Asian operation, and I finished up as head of Disney’s operation in Asia so I was always the suit, man. The only type of entertaining I could do was giving presentations in the board room.

Lots of corporate execs really are showmen though, aren’t they?

Absolutely. When you do a presentation for clients or when you do company meetings you’ve got to tell a story. You’ve got to be able to be comfortable presenting. That’s certainly helped me getting that comfort level. I’m not a stand up comedian by any means – all you have to do is watch the show and you’ll see that. It’s really just about steering the show and handing it over to the guests and letting them show themselves off in a different environment.

What have been your favourite moments from the second season shows you’ve already taped?

Tom Arnold was a great guest. Tom just happens to be a big Asiaphile. He’s doing some work with Governor Schwarzenegger, his buddy. They’re looking at technology for high speed trains to send back to California. He also just had an Asian-style wedding. We probably talked for the first five minutes about what he’s doing in Shanghai and what he’s done in Asia. That’s where we want to stand out. We want to bring the Asian flavour to it.

The infamous Edison Chen is going to be on the season premiere. How did you tackle that interview?

We’re an entertainment show. We’re not CNN so we’re going to approach it differently. I don’t want to give away what we talked about too much here but he was very open, and it’s been a year and a half since all that stuff happened. We just talked about things in general, but of course we addressed The Subject.

The show doesn’t screen live, but now it’s here in Shanghai we really can come and see it ‘uncut’, right?

If you’ve never seen a live TV show being taped it’s a lot of fun to come on Thursdays and have some drinks, some food, see some celebrities, some music. It’s a fun night out in Shanghai and something a little different.

To book a place in Asia Uncut’s 140 seat audience email [email protected]. You can also watch the show on its website: www.asiauncut.com.