Harald Schmidt (TV Series) - Run of The Program

Run of The Program

The pilot episode aired in December 2004, broadcast exactly one year after Sat. 1 televised the last episode of The Harald Schmidt Show. On January 19, 2005, the first regular show followed. The program was initially aired around 11 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays by Das Erste, one of Germany’s public broadcast stations. One Thursday a month the show did not run, replaced with the cabaret program Scheibenwischer. Early in 2007 the broadcasting time changed to 10.45 pm. The show was repeated by all regional broadcast stations of Das Erste the same night or during the following weekend.

The last episode (a 45-minute “best of”) aired on June 14, 2007. After the summer break, Harald Schmidt was replaced by the new program Schmidt & Pocher, which first aired October 25, 2007. The new program is only broadcast once a week on Thursdays; with a length of 60 minutes, however, it is twice as long as the previous show. The Wednesday night time slot was given to Frank Plasberg and his talk show Hart aber fair.

Harald Schmidt and Oliver Pocher presented Schmidt & Pocher together. The choice of Pocher as co-moderator was criticized especially in some feuilletons. According to Spiegel, a German newsmagazine, Schmidt ruled out the possibility of a comeback of The Harald Schmidt Show or Harald Schmidt shortly after the last episode of Harald Schmidt was broadcast since he was generally no longer interested in late night shows.