Enlarge image
Thomas Gottschalk: Glad "that people still want to see and hear me"
Photo:
Thomas Banneyer / dpa
Thomas Gottschalk has been working as an entertainer for several decades.
But he can do little with the offspring of the entertainment industry: "I have to be careful that I don't waste all my time insulting any reality stars or YouTube influencers because I don't believe in them," said the 72-year-old Moderator in an interview with the »Süddeutsche Zeitung«.
"That's the big danger I'm in right now, that I'm constantly thinking to myself, 'Are you really serious?'
Above all, he misses the courage to say something wrong in the younger entertainers.
»All these people with five million followers between the ages of nine and eleven, you realize every time they open their mouths that they are thinking of all their five million followers and just don’t want to do anything wrong.«
Singers or editors insulted on the radio
He never worries what people might think of him.
»The young generation today is so soft-boiled and so anxious about success.
She's under so much pressure.
I'm sorry about that." He used to insult live singers or editors on the radio - "that was possible back then, as long as the listeners thought it was funny".
Today he is happy "that people still want to see and hear me".
It is a great honor to be able to grow old in your profession.
Gottschalk first made a name for himself as a radio presenter in the 1970s.
He quickly switched to television, and he became famous as the presenter of the entertainment show »Wetten, dass..?«.
The first show aired in February 1981.
It was moderated by Frank Elstner, the inventor of the format.
Gottschalk then took over the role of moderator with interruptions from 1987 to 2011 before he was finally replaced by Markus Lanz.
After a successful comeback last year - with Gottschalk - ZDF will continue the format that has since been discontinued in 2022 and 2023.
The broadcaster justified this by saying that the response to the anniversary broadcast in November, which was seen by more than 14 million people, was "overwhelming".
bam/dpa
