, anchorman and author of the
heute-show The first two episodes of the show aired on 26 May and 23 June 2009 as
pilot episodes. The pilot season started shortly afterwards on 8 September 2009 and ended on 30 December 2009 with a best-of. The show was first aired at 11 pm on Tuesdays, their weekly slot, however, was later on moved to 10:45 pm on Wednesdays. The first regular season started on 22 January 2010 and again ended with a best-of on 8 June 2010. The first season as well as the pilot season changed their weekly slot. While the first few episodes aired at 10:30 pm on Fridays later episodes were moved back to 11 pm on Tuesdays.
ZDFneo aired weekly reruns of the newest episode. The second season started on 27 August 2010 and ended on 17 December with a best-of. The show was moved back to Fridays. From the third season on (21 January 2011) they had earned a consistent weekly slot on Fridays. The show always airs on
ZDF first and then reruns are aired on other ZDF channels. Like the preceding seasons the third season ended with a best-of. The fourth season aired between 16 September and 16 December 2011. It is the first season that does not end in a best-of, but in a review of the year's events. Several seasons followed, usually there are two per year: The first one airs between January and June and ends with a best-of, followed by a summer break, the second one begins at the end of summer and ends in December usually with a review of the year's events. From the eleventh season on the show aired from a new and redesigned studio. Sometimes the show was not aired due to recent events interfering with it (e.g. on 24 March 2015 when the
Germanwings flight 9525 crashed in the Alps or on 13 November 2013 during the
2013 Paris attacks). The shows popularity gradually increased and the
TV ratings are generally high. In 2017 the show was produced and aired in
high-definition for the first time, which in comparison to other TV-shows happened quite late. The current season (season 27) started on 27 January 2023.
Course of recording The program is recorded in Studio 3 of the Cologne production company
Brainpool TV every Friday at about 6 pm. Sometimes recorded laughter is even brought in during the performance of the crowd-warmer. This
warm-up, including a "best-of" of former shows (in the past also "fail compilations"), is used to put the audience in the studio in a good mood. During the recording, the audience can independently react and applaud whereas the "warm-up" keeps in the background and only sends signals occasionally.
Guests Occasionally the heute-show has guests from the field of journalism (like
Steffen Seibert,
Maybrit Illner, Hans-Ulrich Jörges) or politics (like
Claudia Roth,
Wolfgang Bosbach,
Wolfgang Kubicki,
Hannelore Kraft,
Anton Hofreiter,
Peter Tauber,
Gregor Gysi and
Jens Spahn). 27 January 2012
Rainer Brüderle, a German politician and member of the
FDP (Free Democratic Party), was a guest in the studio. His rather unclear pronunciation, as well as his Palatine and Rhine-Hessian dialect, has prior been a reoccurring subject in the show. According to Welke, Brüderle had "enhanced the show contentwise like no other". With
Peter Altmaier on the show in 2013, they were able to welcome a federal minister for the first time. Also,
Dirk Niebel (FDP) and
Jürgen Trittin (
Alliance 90/The Greens) were guests in the
Wahlkampfbussi (campaigning pecks) of the heute-show. Comedians and cabaretists are frequent guests on the heute-show, such as Florian Schroeder,
Michael Mittermeier,
Monika Gruber,
Mike Krüger,
Bastian Pastewka,
Simon Gosejohann,
Elton, Timo Wopp,
Christoph Sieber, Torsten Sträter, Ingmar Stadelmann,
Abdelkarim, Friedemann Weise and Oliver Polak. Many popular German public figures have made cameo appearances on the show, for instance,
Kai Pflaume as an "East German teenager",
Hella von Sinnen as a "lesbian headteacher", or
Karl Lauterbach as a "ZDF inspector".
Oliver Kahn once played himself in his position as a ZDF-expert at the coverage of the international football match of Germany-Argentina in September 2014. He also once played a former FC Bayern football player through a video-call in a show of November 2015. Other cameo appearances were
Reiner Calmund,
Hugo Egon Balder as a "substitute-host",
Stefan Raab, and
Axel Schulz.
Glitches The show of 22 October 2012, did not air like scheduled at 10.30 pm because of a glitch during the dubbing to the
ZDF-Sendezentrum (broadcasting control room) due to a technical error. The ZDF team then decided to air the literature program "Die Vorleser" (the readers) and the heute-show after that. The delay had negative effects on the viewing figures. The show of 18 March 2011, in which
Michael Mittermeier was a guest, ended abruptly 41 seconds earlier than the actual end of the show. Since the heute-show had used the word "fap" and other sexual innuendos repeatedly in context with the term "nuclear fetishism", speculations arose on censorship by ZDF. The press also suspected a deliberate reference to the censorship of the satirical show "Scheibenwischer" (windshield wiper) of May 1986 (
Chernobyl). In an interview in March 2011, however, the producer of the show Georg Hirschberg explained that a technical mistake concerning planning caused the premature end of the show. == References ==