TV comeback with risk – will the new Raab show be a million-dollar grave?

Cult presenter Stefan Raab is celebrated like the savior. After a two-hour documentary about his life and work, accompanied by positive celebrity comments, he lets former boxing world champion Regina Halmich beat him to the punch. His trainer analyzed why Raab failed again. At least in the ring. The fight was a huge success on TV.

The whole spectacle lasted around 200 minutes, and around 5.9 million people watched the live broadcast on average. At its peak, almost eight million people watched the “Final Fight”. But the real bombshell came after the fight: Raab is doing shows again!

TV comeback with risk: Will the new Raab show be a million-dollar grave?

For Raab, who was probably one of the most influential figures of the 2000s, the motto was: whatever he captured turns to gold. “Beat the Raab”, “TV total”, the spin-offs Wok World Championship and Tower Diving – all of these were a success. But that was by no means a given in his past productions, which he most recently placed on RTL.

Just this summer, the “RTL EM Studio – All Games, Goals, Emotions”, produced by “Raab Entertainment” and hosted by Jan Köppen and Elton, suffered a bitter defeat: The format just wouldn't take off and was a flop. RTL pulled the plug and the “EM Studio” was shut down early. 370,000 people tuned in recently.

Another sports flop produced by Raab: “American Ice Football” in February. RTL wanted to build on the success of the “Super Bowl”, but that proved difficult: fewer than a million people watched in prime time – the average reach: a meager 0.94 million. Even “Independence Day” on Sat.1 was better at the time.

Old ProSieben hit format also discontinued at RTL

Just a few months later, RTL also canceled “Blamieren oder kassieren” – once a popular “TV total” classic. RTL had used the Elton show to bridge the time between GZSZ and football – but there too, the quotes dropped off significantly in the end. RTL announced that it would not commission another season. “FameMaker” and “Täglich frisch geröstet” are also on the list of Raab flops of recent years.

Nine million followers – that was Stefan Raab's goal when he returned to Instagram in March. To date, he is still far from this goal, with around 2.7 million following him on the platform.

Raab is back in front of the camera himself

Now another show by Stefan Raab is coming – but with one significant difference: this time Raab is back in front of the camera himself, together with Elton. It starts on Wednesday – but only on RTL+. “You won't win the million with Stefan Raab” will be shown from 8.10 p.m. It remains to be seen how many people will want to watch a Raab quiz show over a longer period of time.

The broadcaster is said to have dug deep into its pockets for the return: Raab and RTL have committed themselves to each other for five years, and more shows are said to be in the pipeline. According to media reports, the broadcaster spent at least 50 million euros on the contract with Raab's new company.