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Linda Zervakis and Matthias Opdenhövel will host a new TV magazine at ProSieben from autumn.
At the prime time at 8:15 p.m., the moderators will present a weekly live broadcast that will address politically and socially relevant topics.
"Zervakis and Opdenhövel Live" is the title of the new magazine, which, according to Opdenhövel, should offer "information with attitude".
The new program is "really important" to ProSieben, says channel boss Daniel Rosemann.
Rosemann and his broadcaster were proud of the new program during a presentation. The message to the media industry and the associated public is more or less openly: You wouldn't have expected that from us, would you? In fact, the station, whose claim is “We love to entertain you”, was no longer known for socially relevant formats, with a few exceptions. But now ProSieben is clearly focusing on more relevance as part of the station profile.
The path to an ambitious live magazine was clearly evident this Wednesday, despite the surprise effect.
The media group ProSiebenSat.1 announced months ago that it would again produce its news formats in-house from 2023 (the WELT Group has previously been delivering the news formats).
A report on the right-wing radical scene with the journalist Thilo Mischke caused a stir.
And finally, ProSieben showed the first interview with the Greens' candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock.
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In a film it was said that ProSieben was “more relevant than ever”. Joko and Klaas were also named as representatives of this new relevance, who recently spent several hours on the broadcaster in order to be able to transfer the work in the intensive care unit of a hospital, with which they wanted to draw attention to the working conditions of the nursing staff in Germany. Jenke von Wilmsdorff, who came from RTL a while ago, is also one of the “new relevant” ranks - although it must always be taken into account that these formats are still manageable in ProSieben's overall program.
One wants to “take a stand” and show “information with attitude”, it says on the broadcaster. But what exactly does “attitude” mean for ProSieben? Answer from station boss Daniel Rosemann: The attitude is not to allow topics to be “imposed” on you, also to report “against resistance”, to generally have “curiosity about topics” that go “into life”. There is also a different way of holding conversations with politicians, working less with phrases than conventional political journalism. Interviews would have to be “de-ritualized” accordingly.
Rosemann was alluding to the Baerbock interview that had been conducted by Katrin Bauerfeind and Thilo Mischke and in which questions were raised such as "Are you getting your ass on ice?" And "Do you need eggs or rather ovaries for this task?" The candidate's moderators applauded at the end of the interview, Rosemann commented: “You don't have to give this applause.” But at ProSieben, the work is done “with a lot of emotion”.
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Linda Zervakis, who is still working as a spokeswoman for the ARD's “Tagesschau” this week and then quits, speaks of a “new challenge”.
In the magazine one should “laugh and cry”.
Matthias Opdenhövel, who is also leaving ARD after ten years and for which he moderates the “Sportschau”, rates the new task as “the most exciting thing there is at the moment”.
Merkel as a preferred guest
The range of topics is huge.
At any rate, ProSieben wants to establish a format on German television that aims to convey politics, business and social criticism to a predominantly young audience in a new way.
Not an easy task - they have been working on the concept for eight months.
Linda Zervakis has already indirectly confirmed that it will not be easy.
When asked about a favorite guest, she named Angela Merkel.
The Munich broadcaster is heavily concerned with the election campaign - interviews with the candidates for chancellor of the other parties have already been requested, they are in "good talks", according to Rosemann.
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In the feature film, the word “attitude” was formed from the word “entertainment”, which ProSieben stands for with many feature films and US series.
The station asks the really big questions, shows pictures of burning forests, US President Biden and Covid stations: "How do we want to live?"
The idea of bringing more socio-political issues into the program is completely new, but not - as early as 2018, the then ProSiebensat.1 board member Conrad Albert advocated more formats that would have “public value”. Albert left the station in a dispute with the then station boss Max Conze. Previously, there had already been election broadcasts for the 2013 and 2009 elections with participation by Stefan Raab.
The realization that more relevance is also good for an entertainment broadcaster remained. The station group has worked on the profile of its most important station - sister station Sat.1, however, remains a construction site. Not only is there good entertainment like the show “The Voice Kids”, but also bad TV trash like “Celebrities under the palm trees”. After the death of the candidate Willi Herren, the station just ended the format that had already become out of the question in the first episode with homophobic outbursts from a candidate. Perhaps the positive influence of “Zervakis and Opdenhövel” will soon radiate.