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Cologne (dpa) - The ZDF news satire "heute-show" has been coming for ten years now on Fridays - in 2020 it managed for the first time to reach an average of five million viewers.
This year it has finally established itself and has become a permanent fixture in the madness of everyday news for many TV viewers in Germany.
In short: 2020 was also the year of the “show today”.
The satirical program goes on Friday (December 18th) with the last episode of the year in a six-week winter break until January 29th.
In the last edition of 2020, Oliver Welke will once again be awarding the «Golden Posts» for particularly stupid achievements.
There were 33 issues this year.
Just as many are planned according to ZDF in 2021.
"Surprisingly, the most broadcast minutes by far went to Corona," Welke told the German Press Agency.
"With all the side effects, from the homeschooling debacle to the unequal distribution of state aid."
Second place is probably the US election.
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“It was an almost monothematic year,” says Welke, to continue in the typical “heute-show” humor style: “It is all the more important to deal with topics that deserve more media attention, such as tightening abortion law in Poland or the equally inconceivable fact that Andreas Scheuer is still in office. "
In 2020, the ZDF broadcast reached an average of 5 million viewers on Friday evening.
In the target group of 14 to 49 year olds, the average was 1.5 million.
In 2019 the “heute show” had an average of just 4.2 million viewers.
The online offer is also very successful.
The news satire itself became news this year after employees were attacked on May 1st in Berlin.
Masked people attacked a camera team after filming a demonstration against the Corona requirements.
According to ZDF information, six people were injured and taken to hospital.
The police assumed offenders from the left scene.
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In the issue after that, Welke reacted quite seriously to the incident: «You ask yourself: Is it really logical to trample on freedom of the press in the truest sense of the word on the fringes of events that allegedly promote fundamental rights?
That as a little brain teaser for upcoming demos and as a slightly pastoral closing word. "
The often predictable humor of the “today show” is not without controversy.
The Hamburg communications scientist Katharina Kleinen-von Königslow recently told the news portal “watson” that the show often drifts into elite bashing and is “more of the kind of satire that increases people's cynicism or contributes to disaffection with politics”.
They often devalue entire states.
The researcher rates positively that the program also brings supposedly bulky topics closer to a wider audience.
The ZDF replies to criticism of this kind that the news satire takes up debates in society, examines them for their truthfulness and "in case of doubt, uses satirical exaggeration to take statements from politicians of all directions or official representatives of institutions to absurdity".
Stylistic devices are ridicule, generalizations, exaggerations and the inclusion of prejudices.
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The first “heute show” was broadcast on May 26, 2009, a Tuesday.
At first she came monthly.
Since January 22, 2010 it has its weekly slot on Friday evening.
The show is considered a German adaptation of the American format "The Daily Show".
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201216-99-710560 / 3
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