Second the Bittorrent solution. Has worked well for a number of shows.
Most of the satellites that cover the US (no surprise) don't have a large enough footprint to get coverage here in HK. I'm not sure, but I imagine if you have a 3meter dish you might pick up some signals from the Middle East, which often have some more American shows. Still probably not worth the effort.
Or you could try something mega-geeky if you still have a) someone in the US with a new (6 month or less) cable box, b) cable service, c) broadband internet and d) a computer with firewire.
Last June or July, a little known FCC ruling came into effect in the US requiring cable companies to include firewire ports on their cable boxes. Using free software off the net, you can plug your cable box into your pc, and set it up to TIVO-like record your favorite shows. Then, you can write a script that FTPs the programs to someplace where you can download them overnight while you are here in HK. If you get really funky, you can VNC or something to control the desktop of the machine in the US and alter the programs you want to record.
But it's kind of a bear....