You know how it is: Week after week, completely different households test extraordinary products from all over the world on the Vox hit “Hot or Scrap?”, from car suction awnings to the Japanese Kochufuku sweat free bed to the lightning butter cranker. In between, professional choleric Detlef Steves freaks out over trifles (“I'm about to explode!”, “For me, the experiment is over here!”, “Be careful not to get any scratches in the car!”), someone reads the most beautiful style flowers from a strange instruction manual, and – bang: another hour of evening programming is done (watch episodes on RTL+).
Despite constant warnings in previous years, no one at Vox has yet come up with the idea of doing the same thing with the TV trends of the year. We'll just do it ourselves again.
Stay tuned for the (first, second) third edition of Hot or Scrap? “The Great TV Format Change”: Do new shows and genres keep their promise? Or, like the majority of the gifts you'll wake up with on Christmas Day, does the whole thing come straight into the exchange?
Crossover promo: Heidi with Joko, hoodies in the jungle
Anyone who tuned in to German private television in recent months could never be quite sure: Was that just a glitch in the matrix – or have RTL, ProSieben & Co. just exaggerated again with their latest hobby: crossover promotion?
It started in the summer during the Legend Jungle, when suddenly a man wearing a red habit was standing in the tree house, while Sonja Zietlow was conducting a treasure hunt next to it: “Three women who meet under the cover of night to eliminate the remaining players one by one .” and at the end a treasure beckons. Does this remind me of anything? I can't figure it out right now…” But Sonja, we're happy to help: That was the tongue-in-cheek announcement of the second season of the psychological puzzle format “The Traitors” that you moderated, which RTL+ continued a few weeks later with a “Halloween social – after RTL had previously put the cowl in the studio of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
A short time later, Joko and Klaas at ProSieben were in the middle of guessing mythical creatures, swear words and Kama Sutra positions in pantomime in the “Duel Around the World” – when suddenly Heidi Klum appeared in a hoodie along with her freshly styled models from the next “Germany's Next Top Model” Standing in the studio. For a return visit because master hairdresser Heufer-Umlauf had previously helped with “Schnipp-Schnapp” (Klum) on the same studio premises.
The future of German television obviously seems to lie in announcing television shows while TV shows are running. And maybe you just have to think about it further in order to develop the full potential of this idea.
In the case of “Traitors”, candidates who are murdered at night by their playmates will soon be sent straight to the “summer house of the stars”; Heidi Klum soon demanded multitasking from her models: “Honey, your walk was great, but your announcement of the next season of 'The Voice' wasn't authentic enough!” On “Let's Dance” the jury praised: “It's wonderful how you die You interpreted the plot of the next 'Bachelorette' season in your quickstep!” And in the “Big Baking” on Sat.1 the candidates model the next ProSieben import flop out of marzipan.
More like this – Crossover isn't over yet!
ZDFneo takes over the linear dominance
“At what point is a special interest channel no longer actually a special interest broadcaster?” DWDL asked in October in view of ZDFneo’s breakthrough in ratings, which is no longer an isolated case. And the outcome of the upcoming discussion between ARD and ZDF, which is expected to see politicians agree on a reduction in their additional channels, is as exciting as the next “Wilsberg” repeat.
In Mainz there will certainly be little more than a tired cough if the colleagues at ARD even dare to propose abolishing a channel where you can watch “Cash for Rares”, cool Hollywood films and so on for hours without a care in the world TV crime dramas can be broadcast non-stop. Without having to worry about the annoying task. And all that for the small price of sending out a few politically correct productions so that they can be in the media library.
With ZDFneo it's like with artificial intelligence: at some point the thing will simply take over the entire linear store. And when Horst Lichter starts dawdling through the “heute Journal”, the laughter has long since gotten stuck in our throats.
Oh, ruler of the linear – we salute you!
“Masked Singer”, “Löwen” & Co.: expiry date exceeded
You know this from the refrigerator: In order to prevent waste, many foods say that they “often have a longer shelf life” than the printed date suggests. Consumers are encouraged to pay attention to their senses (“see, smell, taste”) when testing. It is high time to demand this from television executives too.
First of all, those at ProSieben, who have warmed up their previous ratings hit “The Masked Singer” so often that hardly anyone wants to come to the table for the latest season. The show has clearly exceeded its best before date, which can be recognized by the musty smell of the same guessing game routine and the first spots of mold on the costumes. It doesn't help to add a fresh jury composition every now and then.
At RTL, the season of “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” that has just ended has been in the cold for half a year longer than usual; This is not the only reason why the signs of expiration are obvious there too. Once Lombardi has evaporated, the pungent Bohlen taste will hardly be able to be masked with the promised Bushido flavor enhancer.
And while Vox's “Lion's Den” is now not only suffering from advanced material fatigue, only ZDF is thinking ahead and labeling its “Rosenheim Cops” in an exemplary manner with the addition: “Matured for at least 25 years with the same routine.”
Let us agree: Even the most promising TV formats belong in the organic bin after six seasons at the latest, where they are allowed to break down into humus and become breeding ground for new audience hits. In any case, the broadcasters' strategy of wrapping shows in plastic until they decompose has failed.
Please compost directly!
More togetherness: TV rivals help each other
After years of competition, the TV stations have finally understood: Together we are stronger! At the beginning of this month, RTL granted the WDR strike-plagued “Sportschau” studio asylum in Cologne-Deutz – a historic moment of television solidarity. This is currently opening up unimagined possibilities for collaboration (e.g. between Sat.1 and RBB: “Julia Leischik is looking for: the missing radio broadcast”). And at the same time there is a risk that the help between competitors will backfire – if the foreign broadcasting environment has a lasting impact.
When Esther Sedlaczek suddenly fantasizes about “awesome goals”, “mega assists” and the next “touchdown” after just a few hours in the RTL NFL studio, Markus Lanz greets his talk guests in the RTL Zwei rental set with “What’s up, Brudi? ” ” and Sebastian Pufpaff invents the 1st Woke World Cup on his Arte trip, in the worst case scenario a kind of Stockholm syndrome develops – and after that nothing happens more like it once was.
(Although: Lanz at RTL Zwei would probably be worth the try.)
Here’s to group cuddling, TV Germany!
Old & crazy: Become a freemium streamer with archive software
Is that brilliant – or outrageous? ProSiebenSat.1 has promised to push Joyn forward in the audience's favor with tons of “originals” and is therefore showing the announced new “Stromberg” film – Unfortunately not. (It will first be shown on Prime Video before its ProSieben premiere.)
To do this, the Unterföhringer power streamer is bringing previously stored formats back into production: “Comedystreet” and “The Duel for the Money” have already been reactivated. And with a little brain power you can add more classics in the economy version to make Joyn the poor man's free Netflix.
How about “Fort Boyard”, but no longer on a real fortress off the French Atlantic coast, but from the Joyn boiler cellar, where celebrities compete against the facility manager (re-use for the next “Big Brother” season is desired); The role of the tigers is played by three stuffed cats. The new edition of the “Pyramid” impresses with a backdrop made of stacked Amazon boxes that are recycled after each round – the placement easily keeps production costs under control. And “Ruck Zuck” is now called “Zack Zack”, is shot entirely in time lapse and reduces the costs of studio rental to a minimum.
It's all crap, you say?
Then into the bin with the discount comebacks!
The rest
As every year, you can read about what else was going on on German television in the year that is coming to an end here on DWDL.de in the tops and flops of the past twelve months – in just a few days.
And with that: back to Cologne. Have a good new year!
