1.Introduction With the support of technology, the wide application of Internet and more importantly globalization, good films and television works can get spread all over the world. China has imported many English TV shows, which can be watched all over the internet. What#8217;s more, there are more approaches to them. We used to watch English films at theaters while now we can watch both English films and TV shows at home. As we can see, there are more resources and updates of English TV shows than films. And we used to watch English TV shows on some website while now there are apps on phones where we can find plenty of English TV shows, mostly American. The growing number of the websites, the apps and the TV shows all indicate that more people are interested in English TV shows, especially American TV shows. Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama and mystery series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Desperate Housewives was well received by viewers and critics alike. It won multiple Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards. From the 2004#8211;05 through the 2008#8211;09 television seasons, its first five seasons were rated amongst the top ten most-watched series. In 2007, it was reported to be the most popular show in its demographic worldwide, with an audience of approximately 120 million and was also reported as the third most watched television series in a study of ratings in twenty countries. In 2012, it remained the most-watched comedy series internationally based on data from Euro data TV Worldwide, which measured ratings across five continents; it has held this position since 2006. Moreover, it was the third highest revenue earning series for 2010, with $2.74 million per half an hour. The show was ranked at number fifty-six on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list. By the end of the series, it had surpassed Charmed as the longest running hour-long television series featuring all female leads by two episodes. We choose this very TV show as our research subject owing to its popularity. As a well-known American TV show, it is also popular in China. Every season of it has over ten millions hit amount in China before the ending of each season. Moreover, the first season has over twenty millions viewers, which makes it the most popular season among the total eight. Thus, we find values in using season one of Desperate Housewives as our research subject. Functional equivalence is the core of Nida#8217;s translation theory. According to Nida, translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. It emphasizes the functional equivalence of information instead of the direct formal equivalence in translation. The relationship between the target language receptor and the target text should generally be equivalent to that between the source language receptor and the source text. Four aspects of functional equivalence are lexical equivalence, sentence equivalence, passage equivalence and stylistic equivalence. These are the angles from which we can analyze the translating strategy of the research target. Nida then sets forth the differences in translation, as he would account for it, within three basic factors. First, it#8217;s the nature of the message: in some messages, the content should be of primary consideration, and in others the form must be given a higher priority. Second, it is the type of the audience: prospective audiences are different both in decoding ability and in potential interest. The last one is the purpose of the author and of the translator: to give information on both form and content; to aim at full intelligibility of the reader so he/she may understand the full implications of the message; for imperative purposes that aim at not just understanding the translation but also at ensuring no misunderstanding of the translation. 2.Literature review There is no doubt that proper translation of the subtitles can help foreign audience understand the story. Because a good translation is one which the merit of the original work is so completely transfused into another language as to be distinctly apprehended, and as strongly felt, by a native of the country to which that language belongs as it is by those who speak the language of the original work. Many people have studied translation techniques applied in this area. For instance, Zhang Xian (2012), from Hebei University, points out personalities of characters, development of the story, acceptance of audiences and ext. are factors that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to television work translation. Lining （2017） has released an article about the translation of English television works. She mentions that as a special translation genre, translation of television works requires special translating principles besides traditional principles of translation. When translating television works, it is important to convey the meaning of the subtitles as well as the cultural background and the idea of the shows. Therefore, we can accurately understand foreign television works. The particularity of the translation of television works involves accurate understanding of actors#8217; vocal and nonverbal language. What#8217;s more, the translator has to make changes on the text out of cultural differences. It would be helpful for foreign television works to be appreciated if translators know exactly what the lines means and the drama effects behind the words then translate them into another language properly and accurately. Nida's theory of functional equivalence has become an important theory that guides the translation of film and television works due to its full understanding for target readers. In Ronald#8217;s book (2000), he points out the complexity of language, which makes translation of it even much harder. A further complication is added by the fact that, among the various kinds of complexity we observe in language, one kind must give us considerable concern: that is, the amount of variation that is apparent wherever we look. Language varies in many kinds of ways, and investigations repeatedly show that people are aware of this fact, even though they may not be conscious of precisely what they are doing or how they are reacting to the variants that others use. While sociolinguists have talked at length, however, about communicative competence, attempts to specify just what it is have not been very successful, probably because it is so complex and all encompassing. If there is such a thing as communicative competence, and there must surely be in some sense, a further problem arises in trying to explain how it develops in individuals. How does that individual learn to use these in the same way as certain other individuals and in slightly different ways from still other individuals? Thus, there is still so much left to be discovered in this area. Chen Jiarong, from Fujian Normal University, has published an essay using Nida#8217;s theory to compare two versions of translation work. He finds out that using Nida#8217;s theory as guidance will make fewer mistakes and make more sense. Because the limit of time and space, it makes translation of television works different from others. Subtitle translation should be accordant with the lines in all aspects, such as meaning, language style and story lines. Works cited: 陈加荣,功能对等理论视角下的影视字幕翻译失误研究,2015. 冯庆华,实用翻译教程，上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002. 范家才,英语修辞赏析，上海：上海交通大学出版社， 2010. 高一虹，语言文化差异的认识与超越，北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2000. 李宁,英语影视作品翻译汉译研究, 福建省外文学会2007年会暨华东地区第四届外语教学研讨会论文集,2007. Ronald Wardhaugh, M, 2000, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 张宪,英语影视作品翻译汉译研究,2012.