That’s why “Riverboat” and the “NDR Talk Show” were cancelled on Friday

It was already announced in the spring that the public broadcasters want to save money. As part of the largest ARD structural reform ever, a total of 588 million euros are to be saved by 2028, as the ARD explains in more detail on its website. In 2024, five ARD media companies will therefore initially take over the respective talk shows. The plan, which was drawn up in 2017, also included some cuts; the popular ARD series “Lindenstraße” also fell victim to the master plan and was discontinued in 2020 after 35 years. In addition, hundreds of staff positions are to be cut, locations merged and cooperations established.

Due to numerous cuts: ARD measures cause criticism

The plans are sure to attract criticism as soon as they become known, particularly because cuts are being made to political formats – and this in the year of the already explosive state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. The leading public broadcasters there, MDR and RBB, have a claim to information in the sense of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty and are intended to contribute to political education. Regardless of this, the savings plan is to continue to be implemented in 2025. For the current year, this means for talk show viewers that in addition to September 6, there will also be other Fridays on which only one program will be shown on all participating programs and, for example, the “NDR Talk Show” will be cancelled, as is the case now.

This will also be the case on November 8th, when “Riverboat” with presenter Kim Fisher (55) and her new co-presenter Joachim Llambi (60) dominates the other regional channels mentioned above, and also on December 20th, when Giovanni di Lorenzo (65) fills the time slot with “3nach9”. On September 6th, guests at “Kölner Treff” with presenters Susan Link (47) and Micky Beisenherz (47) include comedians Annette Frier (50) and Ralf Schmitz (49) as well as talk show host Anne Will (58). In the talk shows, celebrities reveal interesting details about their lives in a convivial atmosphere.

In one of the last “Riverboat” episodes, presenter Caroline Beil (57) said that she was once lured into the RTL “jungle camp” with false promises. Sources used: ard.de, mdr.de, t-online.de