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''TV total'' is a German late-night television comedy
talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
which originally aired from 8 March 1999 to 16 December 2015 on
ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...
, hosted, created and produced by entertainer
Stefan Raab Stefan Konrad Raab (born 20 October 1966) is a German entertainer, television host, television producer, and businessman. From 1999 to 2015, he hosted the late-night talk show, late-night comedy talk show ''TV total'' on ProSieben. He also creat ...
. Following a six-year hiatus, it was revived on 10 November 2021 with Sebastian Pufpaff as host.


Concept and history

''TV total'' focused in particular on mocking the funniest moments from other shows on German television; it also presented Raab in reports and challenges taking place inside and outside of the studio, and interviewing national and international celebrity guests. Raab is bilingual and interviewed his English-speaking guests in English with little or no assistance by off-stage interpreters. Notable guests were the bands
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. Episodes of ''TV total'' were recorded in a studio in
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
in the afternoon before an audience of around 250 people and televised a few hours later at night. The show's set included a mobile interview stage that could be moved from one side of the studio to the other. A large desk on that stage contained buttons with hilarious sounds and video clips before
Craig Ferguson Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962) is a Scottish-American actor, comedian, writer and television host. He is best known for having hosted the CBS late-night talk show ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' (2005–2014). He is the winner of ...
's '' The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)''. The show had its own band, the Heavytones, and most of the guest musicians and comedians regularly performed live on stage. ''TV total'' was broadcast once a week (on a Monday) from its beginning in 1999 to February 2001 and usually four times per week (Monday to Thursday) from March 2001 to the cancellation of the show in December 2015. The show paused during the summer for up to two months. Special episodes were produced occasionally. Notable examples included live episodes that emphasized soccer during the FIFA World Cup 2002 and
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and the
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, live episodes from New York when Raab and his team visited the
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, one episode that summarized the most recent calendar year shortly before Christmas, New Year's Eve Specials, and up to six episodes per year that featured Raab and other celebrities playing
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. In February 2001,
Elton Elton may refer to: Places England * Elton, Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire), a village ** Elton Hall, a baronial hall * Elton, Cheshire, a village and civil parish * Elton, County Durham, a village and civil parish in the Borough of ...
started as Raab's intern and sidekick and had frequent appearances on the show, for example as a quizmaster for the weekly rubric ''Blamieren oder Kassieren'' (literally: to blunder or to cash). In 2006, Stefan Raab managed to start a new talent contest that was shown as a bonus within his ''TV total'' show. This was named "SSDSGPS" (acronym for: ''Stefan sucht den Super-Grand-Prix-Star'', meaning ''Stefan seeks the Super Grand-Prix Star)'' and only had a total of four attendees; this was a mock on the acronym ''DSDS'' for the German version of
Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and pa ...
running on RTL. The winner of the show, a German singer named
Max Mutzke Maximilian Nepomuk Mutzke (born 21 May 1981) is a German singer, songwriter and television personality. He gained public interest in early 2004 when he won ''SSDSGPS'', a talent contest hosted in Stefan Raab's late-night show ''TV total''. Mutzke ...
, then performed at the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
for Germany. Though he only made it to the eighth position, he later became a quite successful singer and artist in Germany and Austria. The show later had another singing competition that finally carried it to extremes – Raab's talent contest ''SSDSDSSWEMUGABRTLAD'' (acronym for: ''Stefan sucht den Superstar, der singen soll, was er möchte, und gerne auch bei RTL auftreten darf'', meaning: "Stefan seeks the Superstar who shall sing what he wants and who may perform on RTL if he likes") was meant as a mock on RTL Television. He created it when
Deutschland sucht den Superstar ''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'' (''DSDS''; "Germany is looking for the Superstar") is a German reality talent show. Part of the ''Idol'' franchise, it was created by British media mogul Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show ''P ...
candidate Max Buskohl accepted an invitation to appear in ''TV total'' after he left the show in April 2007 but was denied this performance by RTL who cited their existing contract. Raab then started a campaign called ''Freiheit für Max Buskohl'' ("Freedom for Max Buskohl") that got attention for using an edited RAF kidnapping photo. After this campaign failed he started his new casting show. The winner was
Stefanie Heinzmann Stefanie Fabienne Heinzmann (born 10 March 1989) is a Swiss pop singer and television personality. She gained public interest in early 2008 when she won ''SSDSDSSWEMUGABRTLAD'', a talent contest hosted in Stefan Raab's late-night-show ''TV total ...
. Raab self-deprecates himself by insulting RTL within the show. From 2 February until 12 March 2010, the TV-broadcasters
ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...
and
Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...
(ARD) collaborated to find Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. After eight Unser Star für Oslo-Shows,
Lena Meyer-Landrut Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut (; born 23 May 1991), also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer. She rose to fame after representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, winning the event with the song "Satellite (Len ...
was voted to represent Germany at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2010 The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "Fairytale (Alexander Rybak song), Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. Organise ...
, where she won with 246 points, marking Germany's second victory at the competition after Nicole had won in
1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...
. Lena Meyer-Landrut also represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 taking place in Düsseldorf, where she finished tenth. Raab announced his retirement from show business on 17 June 2015. The final episode was broadcast on 16 December 2015. It featured Raab and Elton reminiscing about the history of the show and concluded with Raab and Elton exiting the studio waving towards the audience.


Criticism

''TV total'' was criticized multiple times by the media, mostly because of the exposure of (mostly random and inexperienced) people to mockery. German tabloid paper ''
Bild ''Bild'' (, ) or ''Bild-Zeitung'' (, ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper '' Bild am Sonntag'' () is published instead, which has a differen ...
'' called Raab the "evil of German TV" after he had edited a kidnapping photo of the former German terrorist organization
Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...
for a campaign of one of his casting shows. German politician Wolfgang Bosbach thought ''TV total''s ratings largely depended on the amount of "trash" depicted in the show. In a 2015 review, ''
Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' journalist Jonas Leppin summarized that the ''TV total''s current nature was missing the humor and creativity of the first years of the show and Raab had lost most of his dedication, which ultimately caused the ratings to drop below the 1 million mark. ''TV total'' and Raab himself were subject to a couple of lawsuits.


External links

*
MySpass.de: TV total
show archive (1999–2003 and since 2007) {{Authority control 1999 German television series debuts 2015 German television series endings 1990s German television series 2000s German television series 2020s German television series ProSieben original programming German television talk shows Television series by Banijay Television shows set in Cologne German-language television shows German television series revived after cancellation