When Stefan Raab retired as a TV presenter nine years ago, he may no longer have been at the peak of his career, but his reputation as a brilliant TV showman was impeccable. Raab was consequently given a great deal of respect as he entered his self-imposed retirement as an entertainer. In September 2024, he will be back on the TV stage, has a new show called “You won’t win the million here with Stefan Raab”, which he says is the world’s first hybrid of entertainment, quiz and competition – and after the first round of the game, he fights his way back to his late-night swivel chair, completely exhausted and breathless. Candidate Olli, who is more than 25 years younger, clearly beat the 57-year-old TV legend in terms of physical fitness in the wire mesh challenge. This is probably not what Raab had imagined.
“You have to watch more RTL+, the cool people are here now”, “As an RTL+ customer you have the right to absolute premium material”, “I get twelve months of RTL+ Max for free. I really ripped them off” – Stefan Raab never tired of Advertising for RTL’s in-house streaming service to stir. What is really new about the show for the Cologne-based private broadcaster, however, is that it is only broadcast for paying RTL+ subscribers – the monthly price was also mentioned accordingly. On linear television, the warning “continuous commercial” would probably have had to be displayed constantly – to the usual permanent grin of the presenter.
RTL Germany’s concept behind this: to turn the target group that has grown old with Stefan Raab and has now acquired a taste for streaming into paying RTL+ customers. Raab even poached the Heavytones band from ProSieben and brought them back to his show.
Recommended editorial content
Here you will find external content selected by our editors that enriches the article with additional information. You can display or hide the external content with one click.
I agree to the external content being displayed to me. This means that personal data can be transmitted to third-party platforms. You can find more information about this in the data protection settings. You can find these at the very bottom of our page in the footer, so that you can manage or revoke your settings at any time.
In the new TV hybrid, there was initially a new edition of “TV total” with plenty of stand-up comedy by and with Stefan Raab. Nothing has changed in the one-player concept from back then, although Raab now uses a smartphone as a control device.
In addition to a beautified compilation his boxing match against Regina Halmich There is Florian Silbereisen as the captain of the dream ship on a continuous loop, a eulogy to Peter Maffay – “Compared to him, you feel small and puny. You don’t even know where the leather jacket ends and the skin begins” – and the request from pop singer and presenter Jürgen Milski to get a diagnosis for his inflamed eye before his ZDF Fernsehgarten appearance.
You can expect more premium content from the “King of Funny, who has returned to his throne”. But who cares when the moderator himself is the one who has the best laughs and tells everyone else: “Write it in the comments, I’m an influencer now”.
14 steps to victory – which remained far away
And the quiz competition combo? It consists of a total of 14 stages, with two rounds of questions followed by a mini-Beat the Raab before the final and the one million euro decision. But that remained a long way off on Wednesday, as neither of the two candidates made it past the second round.
Instead, 31-year-old Olli from Karlsruhe and 36-year-old Sören from Berlin – the target group seems to be in this range – had to answer questions that would have been part of the warm-up on Günther Jauch’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” “Then let’s log in C,” is what Stefan Raab says, and the candidates not only did well, but also dutifully delayed revealing the correct answer to questions that were too easy.
The bottom line is: It can still happen, or at least that’s what paying RTL+ subscribers hope. Even Raab still seems to be a little uneasy about his return to the screen. It certainly seems disturbing that he addresses his audience in the hall in an unusually awkward way, when even the considerably younger referee from Saturday addresses the Raabinator informally as a matter of course.
But it’s also possible that he has simply returned to the true faith. There were enough Christian clips from the ZDF television service and allusions to the RTL Passion in the show. Perhaps his wish will come true and he will actually be able to play Jesus in the next performance.
