"So cringe": "The Passion" mercilessly panned by RTL viewers
Created: 04/16/2022, 19:51
By: Julia Hanigk
Thomas Gottschalk moderated "The Passion" - Alexander Klaws embodied Jesus.
(Photomontage) © RTL/RTL+/Frank W. Hempel
"The Passion" ran at prime time on RTL.
The life of Jesus was musically reenacted with a star cast.
On Twitter, the audience tore up the show with Gottschalk and Klaws.
Essen – On the Wednesday evening before Easter (April 13, 2022), RTL showed “Die Passion – Live” about the suffering of Jesus at prime time at 8:15 p.m.
A musical live from Essen with a star cast: Alexander Klaws embodied Jesus, among others Ella Endlich sang as Maria, actor Mark Keller as Judas, actor Henning Baum as Pontius Pilate and Stefan Mross, Mareile Höppner and Gil Ofarim appeared as disciples.
The spectacle was moderated by Thomas Gottschalk - but the viewers were not particularly enthusiastic on Twitter.
RTL's "The Passion" was watched by an average of 2.91 million viewers
RTL presented the last days in the life of Jesus Christ as a modern musical variant with German pop songs - a modern twist on a religious story.
Alexander Klaws was taken away by the police as Jesus in an orange suit and posed for selfies with children, in between there was always a lighted cross.
Readers react to the RTL program "Die Passion" on Twitter.
© Screenshots Twitter
"The Passion" has been running successfully in the Netherlands for years - in Germany the staging was actually planned for 2020, but Corona threw a spanner in the works.
On average, 2.91 million people followed it, which corresponded to a market share of 11.1 percent (figures: dpa).
However, the live broadcast from Essen did not do so well online, the hashtag #diepassion trended on Twitter.
"So cringe": "The Passion" mercilessly panned by RTL viewers
The Twitter community was largely unanimous in their verdict: "Let's see what's up on 'The Passion' and it's so cringe," one wrote. "How did it come to this?" asks someone else, stunned. "Goosebumps everywhere, cringe level reached. That's how it has to be," agrees another person - and these are just a few of the many comments that were often supported by memes.
Thomas Gottschalk recently made a name for himself when he commented on the Boris Becker process.
The moderator spoke of mistakes in "coal and women" and defended the convicted ex-tennis star.
Sources used:
Twitter;
dpa