Thomas Gottschalk on Michelle Hunziker on »Wetten, dass..?«: »ZDF has by no means put her at my side as a ›supervising night nurse‹«

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Thomas Gottschalk and Michelle Hunziker

Photo: Philipp von Ditfurth / picture alliance / dpa

Thomas Gottschalk is putting an end to »Wetten, dass..?«, his final show has been announced for November 25 in Offenburg – without his former co-presenter Michelle Hunziker. In the November 2022 edition of the show, however, some viewers had perceived the 46-year-old Swiss woman as speaking out to Gottschalk, 73. Now Gottschalk himself is commenting on this on Instagram.

»One or the other will see them in my last issue of ›Wetten, dass..? ‹ and perhaps forget that it was I who brought her into the show at the time," Gottschalk wrote, "and that ZDF by no means put her at my side as a 'supervising night nurse' because I no longer knew where to go." Some would suspect that.

Hunziker had grown close to his heart, and he invited her to the last show, Gottschalk said. "Even if only to thank her with a bouquet of flowers for the time we spent together."

Pulling the plug on "Wetten, dass..?" was not easy for him, Gottschalk continued. But the "heyday of Saturday night entertainment" is over. I am grateful that I was able to experience and help shape it.« However, before an editor constantly gives him "shitstorm warnings" during the show or explains to him which "celebrity" is sitting next to him, he prefers to stop.

However, Gottschalk announced that he would present a review of "100 Years of Disney" on RTL just one week later.

ZDF announced on Monday evening that Thomas Gottschalk would host "Wetten, dass..?" for the last time in the 154th edition of the show. For decades, »Wetten, dass..?« was considered the largest television show in Europe. In 1987, Gottschalk took over the moderation of show inventor Frank Elstner, now 81, and moderated until 71, with a short interruption by Wolfgang Lippert, now 2011. From autumn 2009 onwards, Hunziker was at Gottschalk's side.

After the contestant Samuel Koch was seriously injured during a broadcast in December 2010, Gottschalk and Hunziker ended their "Wetten, dass..?" -Moderation in December 2011. Ten years ago, Hunziker once helped out Gottschalk's successor, Markus Lanz, who hosted the show a total of 2014 times until December 16.

In 2021, ZDF initially relaunched the TV classic as a one-off Saturday evening show with Gottschalk and Hunziker. After the success with a good 14 million viewers, two more editions have been announced for 2022 and 2023. In 2022, more than 10 million people watched.

skr/dpa