Political talk
Strong ratings for Caren Miosga’s talk show debut
Caren Miosga in conversation with Friedrich Merz. photo
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa
The same time slot, but Caren Miosga wants to do it differently than her predecessor Anne Will: She starts her political talk with a one-on-one conversation. A black lamp plays a role.
The TV journalist and former “Tagesthemen” presenter, who succeeded Anne Will, welcomed CDU chairman Friedrich Merz as her first guest. In the first half of the one-hour program “Caren Miosga”, the 54-year-old spoke to the Union politician. The title of the program was: “Merz is realigning the CDU – will Germany’s future be conservative?”
Miosga greeted the TV viewers at the beginning of her show: “It’s nice that you’re here.”
In the second half of the live broadcast, other interviewees sat down at the round table in the newly designed studio in Berlin-Adlershof, which is decorated in blue, gray and wood tones: the journalist from the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, Anne Hähnig , and sociology professor Armin Nassehi. It was also about the question of how the CDU differentiates itself from the AfD.
Directly after the “crime scene”
Miosga’s new talk with a studio audience will be broadcast on Sunday evenings at 9.45 p.m. on Erste – like the earlier talk by predecessor Anne Will – directly after the crime series and the ratings guarantee “Tatort”.
With her new show, talker Miosga is trying out elements that differ from the previous format. The round table, the focus on one conversation partner and the type of camera work are examples.
In addition, while talking to Merz, Miosga suddenly pulled a black lamp out from under the table. “Is the light now dawning on you, Mr. Merz?” she asked. The CDU politician replied: “It’s a desk lamp, like the one that used to stand on desks in all offices in the 50s and 60s.”
Miosga added: “We have two originals from the Hochsauerland at the table, so to speak.” It is a designer piece from Arnsberg. Merz is also from Sauerland. It led to the CDU policy.
The fact that moderators confront their talk guests with objects in order to support the content of the conversation has so far been rare in German TV talk formats. In autumn 2021, the ProSieben presenter and former “Tagesschau” spokeswoman Linda Zervakis had a decades-old “Mickey Mouse” in a talk with the then three candidates for chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and Armin Laschet (CDU). -Booklet held in the air, which was already about the topic of climate change. Or the “Bild” journalist Paul Ronzheimer once presented the Green politician Baerbock with a huge piece of meat in a talk in 2021 to talk about the topic of grilling.
Miosga competes on public television in the area of political talk with Sandra Maischberger (“maischberger”) and Louis Klamroth (“hard but fair”) in the ARD joint program Das Erste, as well as Maybrit Illner (“Maybrit Illner”) and Markus Lanz ( “Markus Lanz”) on ZDF. However, these do not have the same Sunday evening programming as Miosga.
Miosga relies on live talk
Talker Miosga said before the show in an interview with the German Press Agency that her talk show would be broadcast live. “I think there is an additional concentration on the part of both the interviewee and the interviewer because they know that nothing can be edited and nothing can be taken back.” The 54-year-old added: “It’s more tension, but also more exciting.”
The journalist, who is known to an audience of millions through her years of presenting the “Tagesthemen”, believes that the topic of economics can be expanded into political talk shows. “Economy is an underexposed topic on political talk shows.” She also said in the dpa interview: “I’m increasingly hearing from board members the wish that conversation programs like ours should discuss the economy more often. But it would also be nice if they agreed to take part more often.”
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