“Bet that ..?” only temporarily “cringe”: Gottschalk can still do it

In the end, there is still what everyone has been waiting for: the excavator bet. A man in a crawler excavator, a woman throwing frisbees and excavator shovels that need to access at just the right moment. The experimental set-up: extremely strange and therefore typical “Wetten, dass …?” The big Saturday evening show, it’s back – unique, as ZDF is not tired to emphasize in advance. You just want to celebrate something. The first show ran 40 years ago on February 18, 1981. Frank Elstner had the idea and initially moderated the show himself.

Thomas Gottschalk later sparked the much-invoked “campfire feeling” on TV: For years, he got ratings that seem utopian today, was responsible for a whole generation of children in pajamas who were “exceptionally allowed to stay up late” to watch dad and mom, grandma and grandpa and Dalmatians how an excavator balanced on four beer glasses.

Crazy ideas as a show concept, plus world stars on the couch who “unfortunately had to go back on the plane”, plus a couple of rock fan Thommy’s favorite bands. But in a failed bet in 2010, the candidate Samuel Koch was seriously injured. Since then he has been paralyzed from the neck down. Gottschalk did not continue after that. Markus Lanz’s attempts to follow in his oversized footsteps failed. 2014 was over.

“Wetten, dass ..?”: Gottschalk is not afraid of shitstorms

This Saturday evening (almost) everything is back: the meaningful Eurovision melody, Gottschalk’s eye-catching clothes (he wears a black and gold jacket like from the wallpaper sample book), the gossip-addicted audience, co-host Michelle Hunziker, who always exudes a little too much enthusiasm and the question of how many faux pas Gottschalk is likely to make this time. “From a certain age you shouldn’t care about a lot and I’ve reached that age,” the 71-year-old cancels all potential shit storms. Others should get upset.

Of course, there is still some “cringe” on this evening: Gottschalk’s pseudo-tabloid interview with the pregnant Helene Fischer (“Your Thomas is a cool fellow, you have my blessing!”), His clumsy old man’s joke, as in the animal bet a dog separated garbage in an exemplary manner (“Some dogs don’t even know whether their mistress is allowed in the plastic or organic waste bin”), his question to singer Zoe Wees (“I know, you shouldn’t always ask where you come from, but.” : Where do you come from? Are you a Hamburger? “).

Klaas Heufer-Umauf: “Like in a fever dream”

But over long stretches Gottschalk showed what the viewers love him for and what he could never use more accurately than in “Wetten dass ..?”, His supreme discipline: moderating from the gut. He asks the eight-year-old child bet candidate Emil: “Have you ever seen me in your life?” When he absently replies: “Who? Didn’t listen properly”, ex-teacher student Gottschalk admonishes him in a mock-stern tone: “Speak in full sentences, please!” When another candidate replies a little too cheekily, he counters: “I’m kidding!”

You have the feeling of observing a person in their natural environment. Gottschalk is “Wetten, dass ..?” and “Bet that ..?” is Gottschalk. It works. Still. ParticularlyThis becomes clear at the moment when he briefs the world stars Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from Abba alongside pop star Helene Fischer. Agnetha and Annafrid are not there. And so a visibly tense Helene Fischer sings the Abba world hit “SOS” with the two Abba men as a trio. With clear text weaknesses, but with a lot of verve, the audience gives the polyphonic choir. It’s a touching moment. Gottschalk is beaming and saying something true:“That’s only possible with ‘Wetten, dass ..?'”

This is also evident in the recognition that Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf give their experienced colleagues: “You don’t think that’s true,” says Heufer-Umlauf, “it’s like being in a feverish dream.”

It is precisely the two ProSieben presenters, who are known for their silly and adventurous tests of courage, with whom Gottschalk has the most serious conversation: About how important it is to “not always just make nonsense”, but also topics like the refugee misery in Moria and the to address the German nursing emergency in prime time at 8.15 p.m.

Frank Elstner and Udo Lindenberg want encore

The bet in which two sisters can only recognize song titles by the movement of a toilet brush in the basin, on the other hand, could easily be imagined with Joko & Klaas. Klaas grins: “A mixture of funny and stupid.” Scrubbing songs like “7 Nation Army” by the White Stripes with the toilet brush – you have to come up with that first. Or as star guest Frank Elstner says: “You have to invent this program just for this toilet brush aria!”

Elstner, now 79 years old, presented the last bet. It’s the digger bet. Instead of joking around with the candidates like Gottschalk, the moderator asks exactly: How many meters is the Frisbee throw distance? What types of crawler excavators are there? Gottschalk: “Now comes the level!” The airtime has already passed, just like before. “My first show was 40 minutes too long,” remembers Elstner. Gottschalk: “I’ll do it until it’s through.” In the end it will overrun for a good half an hour

But: Are you now at the end of the ZDF with “Wetten, dass ..?” If Frank Elstner has his way, not: Once a year Gottschalk should moderate a special edition at his request. And music guest Udo Lindenberg also campaigned for an encore: “Congratulations, it’s great how you do it! It should continue.” And Thomas Gottschalk? He distributed (as before) bouquets of flowers to the women and then said neither “goodbye” nor “that was it for good.” Memo to all excavator drivers: Something could still be done.