Welcome Austria (late night show)

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Singles
	Bigger Better Best

Television series
Original title	Welcome Austria
Country of production	Austria
Year (s)	since 2007
Production ; company	Super movie
length	50 minutes
Broadcasting ; cycle	weekly (Tuesdays)
genre	Late night show , ; black comedy
idea	David Schalko , ; Fred Schreiber
music	Russkaya
Moderation	Christoph Grissemann; Dirk Stermann; Mr. Hermes (external reporter; formerly C-moderator before the relaunch); Peter Klien (external reporter; since April 2016); Albert Farkas (formerly Sidekick / Webhost); Thomas Edlinger (formerly B-moderator before the relaunch); Fritz Ostermayer (formerly B-moderator before the relaunch); Electric Indigo (formerly C-moderator before the relaunch);
First broadcast	May 31, 2007 on ORF 1

Shooting of a “Welcome Austria” episode with State Secretary for Sports Reinhold Lopatka in August 2007.

Willkommen Österreich is an Austrian late night show , moderated by Stermann & Grissemann , which runs on the ORF comedy channel DIE.NACHT . The concept was initially based on the previous evening illustrated Willkommen Österreich , but from the tenth episode onwards, the design and appearance were changed towards a late night show.

history

Origin and initial concept

The previous show of the same name, Willkommen Österreich, was a pre-evening illustrated that ran daily on ORF 2 . In the course of the program reform in 2007 , which also produced the new format, it was canceled.

The new format, launched in 2007, was explicitly advertised as a black humor parody of the original broadcast and originally even used the same logo and corporate design . Produced in the Media Quarter Marx, in front of the original “Willkommen Österreich” set design, the show with its “fear” concept attacked the conservative character of the previous evening illustrated very directly and ironically. In the first ten episodes, only fears were discussed. The show used gloomy lighting and a depressive tone, which was also reflected in the way the presenters expressed themselves. The impression was reinforced by musical and sound effects.

The healing world picture from the afternoon program was completely turned upside down in the new edition. In the first broadcast, for example, it became apparent that a man who was so afraid of not wanting to come out had lived for many years in a small cupboard that apparently only served as a decorative object. The contributions to the new show formed an ironic and revealing counterpart to the previous show. In particular, the former “advice” part was satirized here, for example by inviting experts on a topic and torpedoing them with impossible questions.

Each episode originally dealt with specific fears (crime, fear of flying, etc.) that were discussed with invited guests. The show's humor was initially less a result of individual gags or punch lines than of the unconventional and outrageous style of moderation and surprising, grotesque events in the studio. Originally, they wanted to set up a guest moderation format, but this was not possible due to cost reasons. So it came about that before the relaunch, in addition to Stermann & Grissemann, B and C moderator teams were also used.

Relaunch of the late night show

After the first nine episodes, there was a longer break until new episodes were produced. The concept was fundamentally changed and was based more on the scheme of classic late-night shows and Stermann & Grissemann's FM4 radio show Salon Helga . From now on, the focus was less on trying to create a counterpart to the earlier afternoon broadcast on ORF. The bizarre keyboard background was replaced by the energetic band Russkaja and the live recording was given up in favor of a tighter editing. In addition, this time the focus was on more dotted gags and a friendlier, more colorful studio decoration was presented. Many sections have also been removed in favor of longer talk segments. Instead of experts on certain topics, only prominent guests from Austria and German-speaking countries have been guests since then. Usually two guests from different areas are invited to each program, with whom current topics are discussed. The duo's provocative, informal and spontaneous style of moderation, which was already used in the radio show, is now the core of the program.

Over the years there were further changes to the program structure, so since the eighth episode, a nearly two-minute contribution by Thomas Edlinger has been part of the program, which is stylistically (word-image combination) based on the " program without a name " and the respective To introduce studio guests. In terms of personnel, the majority of employees have been from the FM4 area since the beginning: Albert Farkas , Thomas Edlinger, Fritz Ostermayer , Fred Schreiber and Mr. Hermes , who, as the successor to the Supatopcheckerbunny, is dedicated to the "lower 10,000". Since 2012 also are maschek. Part of the broadcast.

In February 2017 Willkommen Österreich also produced the satire video America First, Austria Second , which is part of the Every Second Counts series of European late night shows. In these videos they satirize the slogan of US President Donald Trump America First .

External reporter Peter Klien with Christian Kern (2017)

From April 2016 to September 2019, Peter Klien , who previously worked as a gag writer for the show, acted as an external reporter for political events based on the German and American models.

Concept and rubrics

In the initial "fear" concept

The first ten episodes of the show had the following categories:

Phobia in the picture:

Fred Schreiber visited several places where the fear was particularly noticeable and asked the people who were responsible for the security there or who simply lived in the area.

Besides the eighth:

In “Beside the Eighth” several young people (probably all of foreign origin) from the 15th (beginning of the 16th) Viennese district Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus spoke . Actually, this section of the program was only intended to make fun of these young people. The name was considered an allusion to the odds flop in the middle of the 8th .

Anxiety counseling with Supatopcheckerbunny:

The external reporter Supatopcheckerbunny (whose identity has always been kept secret, but she comes from the environment of the Central Intelligence Agency ) explains in Berlin how one can overcome one's fears - cynically in a very simple way. Subsequently, about Switzerland, she pretended to be in Bern, which the invited Swiss vice ambassador denied. In reality she was only in front of the Swiss embassy in Berlin.

Hall of Fear:

The Hall of Fear was a column where you could vote weekly for the picture that scared you the most. In one issue it was Christoph Grissemann himself, as this special broadcast was about who had to be buried and what actually happened.

Jancker / Manker - Rommel / Van Bommel:

A quiz in which you could choose between a sports and an art question or a history and a sports question. One candidate was always taken from the audience for each broadcast so that he could take on Stermann & Grissemann in the quiz . It was about answering all questions correctly in order to win a fruit basket. If the candidate succeeded, he was allowed to take it with them, but if the two presenters won, the basket stayed in the studio and was raffled again for the following week. Albert Farkas acted as quiz master, who made it impossible to win the candidate through confusing questioning techniques.

The fear exchange:

The stock market in which the prices of fears kept rising and falling. For example, when there was an attack, crime and terrorism prices would go up. This section was always presented by Paul Kraker .

The bad room:

Behind the couch on which the moderators greeted their talk guests, there was a sign on a door that read "The bad room". Strange noises came from this room in the first broadcasts, which were discussed. In addition, the first programs always ended with a tracking shot of the sign.

An integral part of the concept was Albert Farkas, who acted as the web host for the program and repeatedly made quite strange comments. Most of the time he was not in a good mood, looked very worried and kept mentioning private problems such as family, money etc. In the course of the relaunch, Albert Farkas no longer takes on a role in the TV show, but instead shoots short videos in which he is the guests involved in absurd quiz games or short interviews. The films can be viewed on the show's community website.

As a late night show

Behind the moderator's table there is always a screen with a historical test image in black and white, one from ORF and one from RAVAG .

Categories of the program from the eleventh episode are or were among others:

The bottom 10,000:

Mr. Hermes acts as the external reporter for the society report “The lower 10,000”. For Stermann & Grissemann he is a " Dominic Heinzl for the poor" . In each program he attends a different culturally irrelevant event, such as a school performance in an unknown village. In episode 12 he presented the adoption casting show Childmania , alluding to Starmania . “The lower 10,000” is the last column of the program that is still regularly running, but it is omitted in some episodes, for example in favor of a longer maschek report.

The man in the closet:

The show visits a “man in a closet” who has allegedly lived there for 22 years under the pseudonym Frank Baumann. Behind this person is the illustrator and journalist Tex Rubinowitz, who has lived in Vienna since 1984 . Whenever he is visited, the band Russkaja plays a melody, Christoph Grissemann opens his shirt and creeps slowly dancing to the box. When Dirk Stermann goes to him, he runs quickly to the box and opens the door before the melody is over. In episode 13, Frank Baumann's brother René Baumann was in the can, because Frank Baumann had a paw on his hand operated on. This was seen in episode 14, but disappeared again in the following episode. With the broadcast of the third season in September 2008, the "man in the closet" category was temporarily canceled. He was back in episode 51, stepping out of the closet for the first time and going, as he claimed, to Washington to help the newly elected president with his work. He reappeared in the 150th episode.

Historic highlights:

At the beginning of the program, Stermann & Grissemann played historically important moments. The punch line usually consisted of a play on words (e.g. Louis XIV : "Le tasse? Le tasse, c'est moi" - cf. L'état, c'est moi or Caesar : "You too, my son, Bluetooth ? “In allusion to Caesar's exclamation You too, my son, Brutus ? ).

The most beautiful day in your life:

Alleged fans of Stermann and Grissemann got the chance to take part in the everyday life of the two in this section. However, this turned out to be not very glamorous in the clips and contact between the moderators and the guest was mostly limited to embarrassing silence and insults.

Friends for life:

In short articles, Stermann and Grissemann's childhood was portrayed in flashbacks with young actors. But the two spoke the dialogues themselves. The plot has nothing to do with the true biography of the duo.

The Fischers:

Stermann and Grissemann parody Federal President Heinz Fischer and his wife Margit. Grissemann plays the weak decision-making, touring "Guten Morgen" screaming president, Stermann the taciturn President's wife. For the 250th episode, Heinz Fischer responded to the parody with an ironic video of congratulation.

Austrofred

Austrofred appears at filming and events and interviews artists, etc.

Pharmacist Edlinger

The invited guests are presented in a text read by the "Apotheker Edlinger" alias Thomas Edlinger , accompanied by a video collage.

maschek

A current clip from maschek is presented live. Often there is also a short, alienated statement as the opening credits for the program.

music

As part of the “fear concept”, Philipp Quehenberger played the “soundtrack of fear” for every episode, which he often drowned out the guests. After the first broadcast there was criticism from some viewers who found this music disturbing. The production stuck to him as a musician until the relaunch of the show. Russkaja has been the show band ever since . 5 in Love were the replacement band for Russkaja in episodes 18 and 19. Their style is much quieter and has a jazz influence. In addition to the talk guests, there are also occasional music guests at the end of the program.

Richard Klein

At the end of 2010 the character Richard Klein - played by Herbert Knötzl ( Project X ) - was introduced into the show. In his opinion he is the reincarnation of Little Richard , who is still alive. Stermann and Grissemann nominated him for the Austrian preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 , in which he competed with the song Bigger Better Best .

Controversy

As a result, many statements were made about Switzerland, which led to outraged media coverage in the country. In particular, the claim that Switzerland was a rogue state prompted the Swiss newspaper Blick to launch a counter-action, which was about the best Austrian joke . In the following episode, the top 10 jokes were read out and sarcastically presented as funny. As a result of October 24, 2008, Stermann & Grissemann satirized several times the governor Jörg Haider, who had recently died, and his personal relationship with Stefan Petzner . After the broadcast, highly controversial opinions were expressed on the broadcast website by several viewers. Furthermore, death threats against the two cabaret artists were posted in the forum of the official Stermann & Grissemann website, whereupon they canceled their appearance with the program “Die deutsche Kochschau” in Carinthia.

The entertainer and presenter Alfons Haider described Austria as a " shitty " country in the broadcast on January 15, 2010 in connection with the circumstances of how homosexuals and immigrants are dealt with . This met with a bilateral response in other media and politics.

Another scandal occurred in the autumn of 2010 in the run-up to a recorded and not yet broadcast episode of Willkommen Österreich . Dirk Stermann is said to have presented the following joke: “US lawyers are suing the ÖBB because they accuse the ÖBB of having been involved in the deportation of Jews: Dear US lawyers, I don't think so. If the Jews had traveled with the ÖBB, they would not be in Auschwitz today ! ”At the end of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien and its president Ariel Muzicant , the scene in question had to be cut from the show. A spokesman for the ÖBB reacted with outrage.

On October 7th, 2011 there were two controversies within one broadcast. For example, a charity event should have taken place in Austria for the benefit of pulmonary hypertension patients, but due to the differences between Rainhard Fendrich and Wolfgang Ambros , the main initiators of the gala, it had to be canceled. Stermann then gave the following joke: “With all due respect, pulmonary hypertension charity, that doesn't sound very glamorous, does it? It's just a small step to the sweaty foot gala and the anal fistula benefit in Darmstadt. ”A 16-year-old girl suffering from the deadly disease of pulmonary hypertension was so offended that her father turned to the media. Stermann and Grissemann then had to apologize to the girl in public as part of their cabaret. The ORF also issued a public apology.

In the same broadcast, Stermann and Grissemann referred to the appearance of the German author Thilo Sarrazin in Graz : “Thilo Sarrazin, the contentious author, was now in Graz . HC Strache was there too. Where is the sniper when you need it? ”The sniper meant those two young people who shot passers-by in Vienna in September and October 2011 with an air rifle . The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) reacted indignantly and said that Stermann and Grissemann had indirectly called for an assassination attempt. The duo was unimpressed by the radical campaigns of the Freedom Party.

In episode 188 of October 2, 2012, a clip was shown in which Frank Stronach was parodied in a conversation with David Alaba . The figure satirizing Stronach made racist statements about bananas, skin color and social origin. Alaba threatened to file a lawsuit, whereupon Stermann and Grissemann apologized. The clip was cut from the corresponding episode in the episode archive.

Charisma

The program will be broadcast on the DIE.NACHT program. While the episodes of the first season were around an hour long, they were shortened to around 40 minutes with the relaunch. The programs are usually recorded in the week of the broadcast in the Media Quarter Marx in Vienna. Welcome Austria has also been on 3sat's night program since September 18, 2008 .

All programs can be viewed on the Internet via the Willkommen-oesterreich.tv portal . Thomas Edlinger's contribution to the topic is canceled due to licensing problems with regard to the archive material used .

In summer 2008, from July 3, 2008, the ORF broadcast the most popular moments from the first 43 episodes during the summer break. These were chosen by the internet community of the homepage and shown in a short clip called Willkommen Österreich-Wurlitzer .

success

According to TELETEST , 128,000 viewers saw the first broadcast on May 31, 2007, which corresponds to a market share of 11% between 10.20pm and 11.30pm. The second (108,000 viewers, 10% market share, June 7th) and third episode (125,000, 10%, June 14th) were even lower. After initial difficulties and changes to the program concept - the concept practiced in the first episodes of devoting the program half seriously, half ironically, only to the “fears of the Austrians”, was after a few issues in favor of a more lively moderation, similar to that in their radio show Salon Helga , abandoned - the show has been running more successfully since then, with market shares of up to 28% of the total audience (May 12, 2011).