After a year under the direction of Schlager icon Florian Silbereisen, those responsible for DSDS announce the final round of the famous casting show. At the anniversary showdown, format father Dieter Bohlen will be behind the jury again. Only too understandable.
No Wacken without a habit, no Ballermann without sangria and no bachelorette without red roses: there are things in the big wide world of entertainment that just inevitably belong together. The fans of Germany's most famous talent show also associate their annual TV highlights with a very specific name - namely that of Dieter Bohlen.
After a season break, in which the tall blonde with the pithy mouth was represented by pop pope Florian Silbereisen, what belongs together is finally coming together again. You can think of Dieter Bohlen what you want. The fact is: If you are looking for the most mass-compatible collaboration of person and format in this country, then you inevitably stumble across the rollercoaster show marriage of Dieter Bohlen and "Deutschland sucht den Superstar".
When DSDS was launched for the first time in late autumn 2002 as an offshoot of the successful British format "Pop Idol", a two-decade success story was unthinkable. Thanks to the polarizing "performance" of Pop-Titan, however, it quickly became clear that the casting show industry, which was still in its infancy, would soon be on everyone's lips. That's how it happened. A full 13 million viewers sat spellbound in front of the screen when Dieter Bohlen crowned today's "Winnetou" from Bad Segeberg, Alexander Klaws, as a superstar in the very first final.
20 years and millions of sold "Superstar" recordings later, even the worst Bohlen critics have to admit that the rush of success that Dieter Bohlen already enjoyed in Modern Talking times and aggressively carried to the outside also transferred to the motley world of prime time -Entertainment second to none.
Of course, Dieter Bohlen likes to overshoot the mark. It was not uncommon for the unfiltered assessments and judgments, usually accompanied by bizarre comparisons ("If the weather was like your voice, it would rain shit!"), ended up as a bold headline in the tabloid press the day after the show. But the producer icon from Tötensen didn't want to attack anyone personally - rather, the openly and directly denounced grievances served to burst the unattainable dreams of many hobby bards and would-be chanteuses before the misleading "maturity" that was difficult to reverse .
In the flawless world of TV, where nothing should go wrong during prime time and everyone is hugging each other with a good mood grin on their face, happy and well entertained, Dieter Bohlen acts as a prickly counterpoint. The pop grandmaster, who once greeted dozens of times from the top of the single charts with just one song idea, stands for ultimate success like no other in the industry.
Whatever Germany's number one music producer tackles, in the end everyone involved claps their hands enthusiastically. Sarah Engels, Pietro Lombardi, Beatrice Egli, Luca Hänni: The list of those who made it into the local entertainment Olympus with the help of pop titan is long. Even a Verona Pooth should be happy deep inside that her and Dieter Bohlen's paths once crossed.
So it comes as it has to come. It's not just the die-hard format community that applauds the farewell. Florian Silbereisen has proven to be a worthy replacement and a competent filler. But one thing is also clear: If things are supposed to get really hot again for the format farewell, then only one person behind Germany's most famous jury bar can swing the baton - and that's Dieter Bohlen, the incarnate success guarantee from Tötensen.
