She could be seen, but not heard – at least in the first few minutes of her premiere of “Do you understand fun?” Barbara Schöneberger appeared on silent television. But the 48-year-old wouldn’t be the entertainer she is if she hadn’t capitalized on it. “By the way, we had a bit of sound problems at the beginning,” Schöneberger later explained to the viewers and asked actor and show guest Hans Sigl (“Der Bergdoktor”): “I’ve been rehearsing this song for months. You didn’t hear it?” A few minutes after the breakdown, however, the sound worked again. The hostess then joked about it. For example, when viewers voted for the show on the Internet: “That worked technically. It’s not a matter of course on Saturday evening.”
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The glitter jumpsuit was tight, but not too tight, the choreography fit and didn’t wobble on the live broadcast from Berlin-Adlershof. “Do you understand fun?” is one of the oldest entertainment formats on German television. Even if the moderators changed over the decades – Harald Schmidt was there too! -, the concept remained true to itself: celebrities are led behind the fir tree, gloating reigns supreme, but none of the fooled comes to harm. Schöneberger is fully behind the entertainment format.
“Just because the conflicts are getting closer, times haven’t become harder overall and worldwide. I think there must also be islands where we can free ourselves from the heaviness and burden of our world,” she said in “Bild “-Interview. In her opinion, there should be three hours of full-throttle entertainment between the “Tagesschau” and the “Tagesthemen”. In this sense, this professional moderates: The heaviness of everyday life remains in front of the studio door, in the studio the always beaming and quick showmaster provides for the best mood.
4.53 million viewers
But Barbara Schöneberger also has to accept that “Do you understand fun?” cannot captivate and fascinate. On Saturday evening, the show was left behind by the ZDF thriller: an average of 6.80 million people watched the Ostfriesland thriller at prime time, while Schöneberger saw 4.53 million (16.6 percent) on the first. The quota is decent at best.
As the first guest on her show, Schöneberger received 71-year-old Paola Felix, who moderated the Saturday evening show with her husband Kurt from 1983 to 1990 and who fooled Schöneberger for her premiere on a tour. “It’s a coming home,” Felix said on the show. In addition to Paola Felix and Hans Sigl, the twins Lisa and Lena, the entertainer couple Jana Ina and Giovanni Zarrella and the former ski racer Martina Ertl were also guests. During a surprise action at the end of the show, Schöneberger was thrown at paint bags by her guests in a white protective suit. So much fun – or was it self-mockery? – should be.
Standing Ovations
Despite the sound problems, Barbara Schöneberger received a standing ovation from the audience and announced: “I’m looking forward to the next few years.”
