Anyone who reads the name “Peter Urban” immediately has a voice in their head. This voice can be heard on Tuesday evening, surprisingly on German private television, at the opening of the format “Who’s stealing the show?” on Pro Sieben. The Eurovision melody is played, animated ribbons dive through the picture. Then Urban speaks: “Today, Berlin is the venue for the big dream of this young woman – Anke Engelke from Montreal, Canada.”
Nice the following clip is driven by such a love for television that you want to get up in the living room at home and applaud, even if the neighbors in the house across the street are sure to start worrying again. Anke Engelke meditates on a river bank, she blows heart-shaped soap bubbles, she cycles alone through an autumnal park with a smile and waves, presumably to nowhere. It goes on like this, and at the end of the film Engelke is sitting on a bench, headphones on. She shakes her head thoughtfully and stares at the sky in such an original way that it can hardly be distinguished from a real “Candidates introduce themselves” clip at the European Song Contest.
And then, then it really starts. This Fake-ESC has the motto “Give brain a chance”, further colored bands dive through the picture, the colorful actually drives away evil again for a few bars. Tribal beats are added, the camera moves over the audience, including, of course, endless flags. Enter Engelke, wrapped in Germany-red flag silk: “Good evening Europe, welcome to ‘Who’s stealing the show?’ … hello Europe, hello Australia, 180 million people are watching right now … my name is Änki Ängelicki and I think we should start the show right away.”
The special effects department pulls out everything they have at their disposal
Another five minutes later, Engelke threw off the red fabric as well as the glittering gold dress underneath, under which a third blue dress was hidden. She sang a rendition of “Rise Like a Phoenix” with Conchita Wurst, while the production fired just about everything the special effects department could throw at it, from ground fog to fire cannons.
At this point at the latest, everyone has to take a deep breath and catch their breath in episode four of the third season of the very contemporary format “Who’s stealing the show?” by Joko Winterscheidt and Florida TV. In this quiz show, the prominent candidates can take turns winning the lead moderation of the next episode of the same show, and that has been working pretty well for a while. A certain branding and loyalty takes place via the constant framework of the show. At the same time, however, the constant renewal of the show is already part of the concept. Each episode has a certain project and event character, and that’s very clever in the sense of the merciless attention economy, in which everything that is known has to be constantly threatened by a new faithlessness on the part of the audience.
Thänki, Änki: Moderator Engelke and the candidates Mark Forster, Joko Winterscheidt, Riccardo Simonetti (from left).
(Photo: Anna Thut/Anna Thut)
On Tuesday, “Who’s stealing the show?” worked. particularly good for Pro Sieben: 24.1 percent market share among 14 to 49-year-olds, market leader and reach winner at prime time. Of course, that also has something to do with one of the few queens of German television, Anke Engelke.
As a spectator, one is already grateful to the humorous, talented singer, shower-experienced Engelke for choosing her public appearances very carefully. Their sheer participation in a format is usually like a reliable TÜV seal, issued and put up by the Engelke TV surveillance association. That was the case recently with the very good Amazon format “LOL: Last One Laughing”, and it is no different with “Who is stealing the show from me?”.
Florida TV makes television with great show factor factor
Incidentally, Pro Sieben also steals the show from public television. While innovation is still understood there, working on a whoopee cushion format like “Do you understand fun?” to hold on to, but now to have it moderated by Barbara Schöneberger, one sees a different approach, not only in the Florida TV format discussed here.
Here, a new generation of people is constantly producing very good entertainment television with a large show factor, and it trusts in new, interesting minds like Shirin David as well as show and pillar saints like Bastian Pastewka or Anke Engelke. Incidentally, on Tuesday she distributed points in possibly even correct Polish and spoke as Marge Simpson. Please protect all people, and especially protect Anke Engelke.