8 p.m. news
Breakdown at the Tagesschau: Teleprompter stops working during the live broadcast
Tagesschau spokesman Jens Riewa is familiar with technology problems. In August 2021 he already experienced a live breakdown
© Screenshot ARD Tagesschau
Anyone who watched the Tagesschau on Monday evening may have seen a puzzled speaker Jens Riewa for a moment. A technical error briefly threw the speaker off course. Riewa solved the problem gallantly.
The Tagesschau news started with the usual gong on Monday evening at 8 p.m. speaker Jens Riewa welcomed the spectators. The program began with a report from the federal-state meeting in Berlin, followed by a report from Israel. Just as Riewa was about to present the next article about the formation of a government in Poland, the technology played a bad trick on him.
“In Poland, President Duda has announced that he will once again commission Prime Minister Morawiezicke to form a government,” the moderator said perfectly. “The national conservative PIS was the strongest force…” he continued, but then stopped in the middle of the sentence. Short pause, incredulous look.
The explanation followed promptly: “Now it’s… the Israeli… now it’s the prompter, we apologize,” Riewa stammered. Apparently the message about Poland was no longer visible on the teleprompter, but there was one about Israel. Riewa had already read them out at that point. The speakers of the ARD Tagesschau usually read their reports from a teleprompter, a kind of reading machine.
Moderator Riewa waited a few moments, then breathed in audibly and then addressed the director directly: “Can we please turn the director on to 12?” After a few moments it continued as usual.