Stefan Raab vs. Halmich: The biggest advertising campaign in TV history

He had always been pretty good at making money and staging. Many of his shows, whether it was the Wok World Championship, diving or the European Carball Championship, were so full of promotion and product placement that Stefan Raab and ProSieben had to declare them as “continuous commercials” when they were broadcast.

His TV comeback on RTL was supposed to show him as a boxer, but he actually came back as a salesman. The 57-year-old's return was announced as a revenge boxing match against former world champion Regina Halmich. The two had already competed against each other in 2001 and 2007, each time watched by more than seven million viewers.

In fact, he was only interested in being remembered at the best time after nine years off the air and promoting his new show. The evening turned out to be a 90-minute review of his life's work in front of 13,500 spectators, always accompanied by NWSDWH – the alleged letter code of his new show, before fists actually flew briefly after the fifth commercial break.

Who would win was irrelevant this time. Raab's first major public appearance was the overarching topic after the 57-year-old had consistently disappeared from the screen after his departure.

However, two hours would pass before the question of what he looked like now was answered. Given nine years of abstinence, this made no difference, but it made the real reason for this evening, which was hyped up to be the TV moment of the year with a number of concerted actions, increasingly clear.

RTL shows 90-minute Raab portrait

Fanfares sounded at the beginning and after every commercial break, and fireworks lit up the Düsseldorf night. Not to announce a boxing match, however, but to honor the work of a multitalented media and musical artist. The first hour and a half was a single homage.

With “Chain-link fence”, “Böörti, Böörti Vogts”, “Ö La Palöma”, “Wadde Hadde Dudde da?” and “Here comes the mouse”, lots of rabbigrams from Heino to Rihanna and the buttons on the moving desk. A snippet collage, commented on by Thomas Gottschalk, Udo Lindenberg, Markus Lanz, Helge Schneider, Judith Rakers, Anne Will, Campino, Oliver Welke, Michael Herbig, Peter Kloeppel, and Herbert Grönemeyer.

Viewers were able to witness once again how Raab started out on Viva 30 years ago, invented TV Total at ProSieben and then re-invented television with numerous shows. He won the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany and some had already forgotten that he had even been a presenter in the studio for the chancellor debate between Angela Merkel and Peer Steinbrück.

His retirement nine years ago came just in time before linear television lost its relevance. With “Schlag den Raab” he had given German television what was probably its last great innovation in the supreme discipline of Saturday night entertainment.

The viewers were then given all of this to chew over once again, and after 65 minutes, presenter Elton didn't mince his words when he announced the next part of the – as the former show intern said – “Stefan Raab documentary”.

Because that's exactly what it was: a biopic of Stefan Raab, sold through an alleged boxing match. For a short time, the idea occurred that this show could also announce his death: the big punch line, right at the end. This did indeed happen, but it was announced by a Raab who was still cheerful even after six rounds of boxing: “I want to tell you something, Elton. “I've thought about it: I'm going to do shows again,” he said to the cheers and applause of the audience.

Always advertising

But a lot of advertising still had to be done before then. TV viewers had a chance to win 30,000 euros, as well as a NWSDWH merch package. What the letter code was all about would be revealed later. The cliffhanger had been building up on social media for days and was then omnipresent in the Düsseldorf hall.

Regina Halmich advertised 300 special offers at Kaufland, and RTL was also able to capitalize on the attention. Florian König reminded us of the Formula 1 in Baku on Sunday. Jana Wosnitza was also able to advertise the RTL broadcasts of the NFL: boxing today, Formula 1 and American football on Sunday. White news.

Oh no, the station also has the MMA event in Frankfurt on October 12th. “Really excited,” as presenter Frank Buschmann added. And, of course, there's still football, too.

“There's actually boxing going on here,” Wontorra and others were probably surprised a little later when the boxing ring was lowered from the ceiling with a roar. It was already 9:43 p.m. The event had started at prime time at 8:15 p.m.

Regina Halmich then came into the ring shortly afterwards, before Raab drew his final suspenseful bow. A countdown ran from 10 to 1 and back to 10. But then, instead of Raab, Helge Schneider appeared and sang “Katzeklo”. It was now 10:05 p.m. when a skywalk was lowered from the ceiling, accompanied by lots of fog and flashing lights.

Pamela Reif flew through the hall as an angel, accompanied by strings and choirs, singing “Stefan Raab returns” in playback. He then got down into a white XXL suit, with the NWSDWH lettering on his blue and white cap, tinted aviator glasses on his nose, and a grey beard. Instead of boxing, he sang a new song: “Pa aufs Maul”, including rap parts by Sido and Ski Aggu.

When the cap flew off, the grey and noticeably thinning hair was visible. Now that the cape was gone, everyone could see what Raab had done in the past few months: his well-trained body was impressive. He reminded a little of the ascetic Thomas D from the Fantastischen Vier. Now it's gone: he only had the killer belly in his fighting name. “He's in great shape. “He's never looked better,” praised Wontorra.

Against Raab for one million euros

The fight also went the full distance, six times two minutes. Raab held out, lost clearly on points, but successfully sacrificed his body and stamina for his new show.

“Is that all there is to it?” Elton asked politely in the ring, leading to the first important point of the evening: “It was really hard to keep that to ourselves. We didn't speak to anyone. “It starts next week,” revealed Raab, who then invited everyone to a press conference and announced all the details.

His weekly show is on RTLplus, is called “You won't win the million here” and is a mixture of quiz and competition. But he will also “dissect the week's events properly, and there is a million euros to be won every week.” Unfortunately, there is someone who is against it: namely me.”

In addition, there will be further shows by and with him on RTL. The industry service DWDL recently reported that the broadcaster is planning to spend at least 90 million euros over the next four years on content from the new company Raab Entertainment. Raab has now announced that the company has committed itself for the next five years.

NWSDWH, the answer was still missing, was originally intended as the claim for the show. But the name was then changed again.