That evening there is only one topic on public television: the triell.
ARD and ZDF broadcast the political exchange during prime time.
Two weeks before the election, the top candidates Armin Laschet (CDU), Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Annalena Baerbock (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) face the television audience again - the people they still want to convince.
According to surveys, a third of Germans do not yet know who they will vote for in the upcoming general election.
So there is a lot at stake.
It goes without saying that after the 95-minute triell - which most of the time was more of a duel - Anne Will also dedicates herself to this TV event.
She wants to deliver the first analysis of the evening.
The following questions are in the room: How did the candidates present themselves to the Chancellery?
What were the most interesting statements?
And of course: who won?
Jens Spahn (CDU), Malu Dreyer (SPD), Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) as well as Robin Alexander (deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper Welt) and the political scientist Ursula Münch should provide illuminating answers.
You can safely save yourself the exact positions of the invited politicians at this point, because for the following broadcast it doesn't matter whether CDU man Spahn is actually health minister or maybe defense or even education minister. Spahn's answers this evening will be as independent as they are predictable. Or what do you think Jens Spahn answered when asked who did best in the Trielli? Small - if completely unnecessary - tip: Armin Laschet is the top candidate of the CDU / CSU.
But before Spahn can praise Armin Laschet's aggressiveness, Anne Will announces Ellen Ehni at the beginning of the show.
The editor-in-chief of WDR television presented the results of two quick polls that evening: The first poll was carried out halfway through the triell;
the second at the end.
Around 1500 viewers are said to have been questioned - and thus give a representative picture of how Annalena Baerbock, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz had an effect on television viewers.
Sense and nonsense of the lightning polls
The meaningfulness of such quick polls could now be argued: What is the point of asking 1500 people in the middle of a television program which is the most likable, most competent and anyway the winner? Anne Will in any case seems to be convinced of this means of opinion-forming, there is no other way of explaining such a start in the show. Well, let's make it short: Scholz is ahead.
Robin Alexander is the first to comment on this in the discussion. The results of the survey did not surprise him. And probably not Armin Laschet either, says the journalist. Even more: According to Alexander, the CDU man even took his bad values into account. "That follows the idea that he can no longer win it as a person." What Robin Alexander means by this, he explains in the following: Laschet is now no longer relying on sympathy, but on precise content and tries in this field, his current main competitor Olaf To attack Scholz. Too bad that Laschet apparently made a financial mistake in terms of content when he confused the technical and legal supervision of Finance Minister Scholz over a special money laundering unit.
Political scientist Ursula Münch then gave a refreshingly open assessment of the lightning poll.
The people did not look at the triell with an open mind, but of course, for the most part, they would have already formed an opinion about the candidates.
Anne Will notices with a bitter smile that her entry into the show is literally wiped off after just a few minutes.
Dry introductory topics
But Münch also gives substantive reasons. The audience was confronted with a difficult entry into the triell. First the questions about possible coalitions, then the dispute about Olaf Scholz's responsibility in the Cum-Ex and Wirecard scandals - these are incredibly complex topics that the viewer would not be drawn into the dispute between the candidates, the political scientist analyzes.