Johannes B. KernerPart of our guide to German TV: “Slow death, or a winter of German telly”Johannes B. Kerner Young-Tony-Blairish, large-eared TV host. Presents football as well as a current affairs chat show. Got into trouble last year for throwing fellow TV presenter, the slightly mad Eva Herman, off his show for praising Hitler’s dedication to family values. Kerner moved from state to private broadcasting last year so he could do more adverts – most notably for Air Berlin.
Günther Jauch A slightly less intellectual Kerner, Jauch shot into the A-list thanks to the German version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, where he is brilliant at looking perplexed at the questions, even with the answers in front of him, and at leaving maddening tensionramping pauses. Tall, bespectacled and goofy, he has a real knack for staying pally with his guests. He’s apparently looking to muscle in on the Kerner demographic by negotiating his own talk show on state broadcaster ARD in 2011. Will hawk just about anything in commercials.
Maybrit Illner Top political mistress of ZDF, presenting both the Morgenmagazin news show and her own very good political discussion show called Maybrit Illner. The title is a bit misleading – a better one would be ‘Shouty Germans’. The camera perspective swoops around in positively epic cinematic fashion for close to an hour while various shouty Germans keep telling each other not to interrupt them.