On Saturday, Thomas Gottschalk moderated his last edition of Wetten, that…? on ZDF. It was an evening that showed 12 million viewers exactly why his TV time was up. The three hours became one Gottschalk-Worst-of of the last years:
It was all exactly as expected. The insolence towards his guests coupled with avuncular rebelliousness has been part of the core brand of Wetten, that…? since Gottschalk’s comeback in 2021.
Why should his farewell be any different?
Gottschalk missed a big opportunity with his Wetten Dass farewell
Because in theory Thomas Gottschalk is a great showmaster who can read and direct crowds and create great TV moments. Farewells are always great TV moments, they fill the last page of a show’s photo album. Just look at Stefan Raab’s departure, the separation of Joko and Klaas from Circus Halligalli, and yes, as far as I’m concerned, Daniel Hartwich’s sober resignation as jungle camp moderator.
ZDF
Thomas Gottschalk clashed with Shirin David
And with Thomas Gottschalk, not just any presenter is leaving any show, but the most influential German show master, the show dinosaur par excellence. This is shown not only by the ratings of the past decades, but above all by the excitement that Gottschalk can generate when he forgets the names of national soccer players – and is still loved irrationally by the Germans.
So Gottschalk had something to gain when his last Wetten Dass minutes inevitably arrived on Saturday. He already had it heavily scratched memory of his show era be able to cope with an emotional farewell. He would have gone in style and had the last moment with him his Audience can enjoy – those spectators who “best times of your life” spent with Gottschalk, as he himself stated at the beginning of the show.
Gottschalk ruined perhaps the most important moment of his career
But these are just memories. In the present, his instincts deserted him once again. Gottschalk did not recognize the fragility of the moment when he began his two-part farewell speech. In the first part he admitted that current pop culture has overtaken him, nothing wild, a wise insight.
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But in the second part he drove a wedge between himself and the audience. He justified his departure with supposedly prescribed reasons Speech restrictions. He said he can no longer talk on the show the way he talks at home. “And before some desperate production manager runs back and forth and says, ‘You’ve created another shitstorm,’ then I’d rather not say anything else.” Before the people depose him, he prefers to leave himself. The idea of moving towards his changed audience of his own free will seems unthinkable anyway.
He left it vague who exactly banned him from speaking, how they should have expressed themselves in his style and what exactly he was no longer allowed to say.
The memory of Gottschalk is deeply scratched
ZDF
Thomas Gottschalk’s last Wetten Dass moments
Of course, Gottschalk did not leave the impression of a man in the show who would allow himself to be tamed by stage directions. And yet this idea apparently bothered him so much that he made it the subject of his last words on the show. Instead of reflecting on what made him great (charm, lightness) and simply giving in to sentimentality, he gave up offended vanity against a fantasized cancel culture.
In doing so, he places himself in an unsavory corner in which his audience doesn’t want to see him and he probably doesn’t want to see himself either.
Also interesting:
These almost 30 seconds in his farewell speech will do more damage to Gottschalk’s memory than the many failed moments before. Frank Elstner seemed to suspect this. After Gottschalk’s speech, the Wetten Dass inventor stood up from the front row, buttoned his jacket and did what one does when saying goodbye: He praised Gottschalk’s last Wetten Dass presentation about the green clover. He brought out the beautiful things. He didn’t say a negative word about the sometimes frightening performance that his protégé had put on. He tried to save what could no longer be saved.
Of the two television greats in front of the camera, only one understood what was at stake. Shortly afterwards, the other was carried out of the picture with an excavator.