Nose ahead
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Nose ahead |
| Country of production | Germany |
| Year (s) | 1988-1990 |
| length | 135 minutes |
| genre | Saturday night show |
| idea | Frank Elstner |
| Moderation | Frank Elstner |
| First broadcast | December 10, 1988 on ZDF |
Nose ahead was a German TV show that was broadcast on ZDF between 1988 and 1990 and developed and hosted by Frank Elstner . Up to the cancellation of the Saturday evening show due to poor audience ratings , 13 episodes were produced. Nose ahead was considered a major failure in the television career of Frank Elstner, who started developing show formats such as Die Mondagsmaler and Wetten, dass ..? until then had a lot of success.
history
Announced by ZDF as a "show of superlatives", the program was canceled after two years and 13 shows, as the audience ratings fell sharply. While 21.72 million people watched the first episode on December 10, 1988, the rate fell to just 12.46 million at the end of 1990. In addition to the ongoing criticism of the show, the reason given was the frequent and confusing changes to the rules of the game, which were actually intended to optimize the show.
The shipment planned for January 27, 1990 had to be canceled at short notice after the scratch cards sent out turned out to be faulty.
Concept and process
In the first part of the program, eight candidates were presented one after the other who had distinguished themselves through an idea or invention or who had achieved something special. If the invention could not be shown in the studio, a small video clip was shown. This was followed by a round of talks with the guests.
In the end, the studio audience decided which of the guests had the "nose ahead". The studio audience was provided with spotlights that were used to vote for the winner. There were often difficulties with the evaluation if the decision was tight. The elected candidate was then able to make a big win with the help of television viewers calling on the show. The callers came through scratch cards with the phone number. For this purpose, ZDF sent scratch cards to 30 million households in advance of the first broadcast.
At the end of the first show there was a fair horse race commented by Werner Hansch , in which the eight candidates were able to prove themselves. From the second edition onwards, this horse race was replaced by a real trotting race with celebrities, which was also commented on by Werner Hansch.
The show's venues included the Berlin Deutschlandhalle , the Rhein-Ruhr-Halle in Duisburg , the Saarbrücker Saarlandhalle , the Freiheitshalle in Hof , the Eilenriedehalle in Hanover and the Offenburger Oberrheinhalle . In Switzerland the broadcast was from the St. Jakobshalle near Basel , in Austria from the Linz sports hall.
mascot
The show's mascot was a group of rhinos who displayed the score in small computer-animated clips and one of which symbolically crossed a finish line at the end of the show with its distinctive nose first. These rhinos were meanwhile also available as merchandising items.
criticism
After the first edition, the show was massively criticized by the public and critics, which was reflected in the subsequent editions of the show in sharply declining audience ratings. Many viewers did not understand the complicated rules of the game, which were changed several times over the course of the 13 programs.
In its review of the first edition of the show, Der Spiegel spoke of the "flop of the year, a new, terrible setback for the distressed German amusement". The show was "a bland Nasi Goreng made of talk, games and stale singsong, chatty, joke-free and tension-free".
The scratch card system was also criticized, which brought considerable additional income to the Deutsche Bundespost by sending back up to 2.9 million scratch cards for a fee. The then Federal Post Minister Christian Schwarz-Schilling was also a guest on the first broadcast.
literature
- Susanne Schult: Frank Elstner's "nose ahead" . Scientist-Verlag Faulstich, Bardowick 1993, ISBN 3-89153-024-2 (At the same time: Master's thesis, Univ., 1992).
Web links
- Description of the show on www.fernsehserien.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gong , issue 49/88, quoted from Wishlist.de , accessed on September 14, 2017
- ↑ a b The ZDF in the 50-year ratings check , meedia.de, accessed on September 14, 2017
- ↑ a b c d e Michael Reufsteck and Stefan Niggemeier: Das Fernsehlexikon, quoted from wunschliste.de , accessed on September 14, 2017
- ↑ a b " The media hype has not worked " - Der Spiegel, issue 51/1988, online edition accessed on September 14, 2017
- ↑ Der Che des Deutschen Fernssehen , Der Stern, accessed on September 14, 2017