The news program “RTL Direkt” will be launched in a few days. The private broadcaster is planning something completely new, and a lot is still in motion. But a special dress code has been set for Jan Hofer.
Berlin – The new “Tagesthemen” competition “RTL Direkt” with Jan Hofer and Pinar Atalay should always leave viewers with a positive feeling.
“At the end we go out a bit personally, positively – for the people who have had a long day at work,” said the editor-in-chief of “RTL Direkt”, Lothar Keller, on Thursday in Berlin.
“We’ll certainly vary that too. This can be anything. It can also be an interesting, colorful message at the end, ”says Keller. “But it will also often be a satirical view of the day’s events, of the weekly events, of the debate topics of the week. And there we will try a lot, experiment a lot, that is a field where we have a lot of possibilities. ”“ RTL Direkt ”will be launched next Monday.
The format runs Mondays to Thursdays at 10:15 p.m., in other words, in competition with the “Tagesthemen” in Das Erste. “What is special is that we think about what is a topic of the day that occupies and moves people,” says Keller. “And we want to bring that closer to people even more intensively. Explain complex topics again with a guest or take a closer look with a politician to see what his position on them is. To question that too, ”explained Keller. “That’s more than we do with the live broadcasts on” RTL aktuell “or the” Nachtjournal “.”
Debut broadcast with Baerbock
The first guest in the debut broadcast on Monday will be the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock. The main topic then is: What does green policy actually cost?
Anchorman Hofer praised everything about the format from scratch. “When in life do you have the chance to do something completely new? To help conceptualize something, to help shape it and then to bring it to the stage as a moderator? More is simply not possible. “
In front of almost 15 million viewers, Jan Hofer took off his tie at his last “Tagesschau” in December 2020 – and he doesn’t want to wear it again on television if possible. “Taking off the tie was also a symbol that a phase in my life is over. And that’s why you can also see: The tie is missing. It doesn’t get back to it either. Unless it is urgently needed, ”said the former“ Tagesschau ”head spokesman.
The managing director of RTL News, Stephan Schmitter, referred to numerous surveys that were incorporated into the concept. The fact that “RTL Direkt” now runs at 10:15 p.m. in competition with the ARD “Tagesthemen”, and not the ZDF “heute journal” at 9.45 p.m., has on the one hand to do with the broadcast schedule of a private broadcaster and its advertising blocks. “10:15 pm is the optimal time, already given by the program. But there was also the fact that a lot of switching processes take place in the store at 10:15 p.m. People take the remote control in their hands, press the buttons and say: “Before we go to bed, what do we have left?” “And there is movement in the market. (…) And of course we want to take advantage of this movement. ”Dpa
