In Germany, the series was shown by the private broadcaster RTL. The broadcast began with the 90-minute pilot film The Key Witness on January 11, 1998, followed by the eight-episode first season. The second season, consisting of 13 episodes, was broadcast on September 14, 1999, and the third season, also comprising 13 episodes, followed just over three months after its end.
The episode Geisterflieger was originally scheduled to air as the first episode of Season 4 on September 11, 2001. Due to the topic that was felt to be inappropriate in relation to the terrorist attacks in the USA, the episode was not only postponed, but completely left out. Thematically, however, the episode is missing for the overall context of the series, since the paramedic Enrico Contini appears here for the first time. The fourth season started a week later without this episode and ran until December 2001. It was the last new season to air in one piece.
The first six episodes of the fifth season were broadcast in March and April 2002. The second part of the season began on September 17, 2002 a good year after the originally planned broadcast of the episode Geisterflieger with a revised version. Several scenes had to be re-shot for this, as at this point in the plot some of the subsequent actors had already dropped out of the series. Therefore there are two different versions of this episode. The remaining episodes of the season ran until November 2002.
The last two seasons of the series were neglected by RTL: After eight episodes of the sixth season were shown for the first time from October to December 2003, the broadcasting of new episodes was canceled. It was not until almost three years later that more new episodes were broadcast in July 2006. The episodes of the sixth and seventh season were mixed up. After the first two episodes of the 7th season, three episodes of the 6th season, one episode of the 7th season, the remaining two episodes of the 6th season and another episode from the 7th season followed. After that, the broadcast was canceled. The remaining four episodes, which were not shown from season 7, were only sent unannounced in the night program just under a year later at the end of June 2007.
During successful times, an average of 6 million viewers saw the series in Germany, with the highest rating of 6.75 million viewers being achieved with the second episode of the second season (The Bank Robbery).
The series was also broadcast in Austria. In 2000 the program was broadcast on the Swiss television station SF 1. The television series was repeated on ORF 2 and on Super RTL.
Ghost flyer
The episode Geisterflieger was to be broadcast for the first time on September 11, 2001, as the first episode of the fourth season. However, due to the parallels to the terrorist attack in the USA, this did not happen. A week later, the fourth season started without this episode and was removed from the season. This episode was later broadcast as 7 of the 5 seasons, partly remade, due to several actor changes, on September 17, 2002, almost a year later, but still for the first time. The original version is only available on the Season 4 DVD in the Extras. Furthermore, due to the paramedic change from Ralf to Enrico, the original episode can be classified as 34.5 plot-wise as a special episode between the 3rd and 4th season.
