Concept and history
TV total focused in particular on mocking the funniest moments from other shows on German television; it also presented Raab in reports and challenges taking place inside and outside of the studio, and interviewing national and international celebrity guests. Raab is bilingual and interviewed his English-speaking guests in English with little or no assistance by off-stage interpreters. Notable guests were the bands Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Linkin Park, Coldplay, Morten Harket, Adam Green, U2, Keane, Oasis, Metallica, and Manowar, martial-arts star Jackie Chan, Kevin Costner, 50 Cent, Eminem, D12, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Black, Jon Bon Jovi, Ewan McGregor, Dwayne Johnson, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, t.A.T.u., Justin Bieber, Psy, Sting, Paris Hilton, and Kylie Minogue.
Episodes of TV total were recorded in a studio in Cologne in the afternoon before an audience of around 250 people and televised a few hours later at night. The show's set included a mobile interview stage that could be moved from one side of the studio to the other. A large desk on that stage contained buttons with hilarious sounds and video clips before Craig Ferguson's The Late Late Show (CBS TV series) . The show had its own band, the Heavytones, and most of the guest musicians and comedians regularly performed live on stage.
TV total was broadcast once a week (on a Monday) from its beginning in 1999 to February 2001 and usually four times per week (Monday to Thursday) from March 2001 to the cancellation of the show in December 2015. The show paused during the summer for up to two months. Special episodes were produced occasionally. Notable examples included live episodes that emphasized soccer during the FIFA World Cup 2002 and 2006 and the Euro 2004, live episodes from New York when Raab and his team visited the Super Bowl XVIII, one episode that summarized the most recent calendar year shortly before Christmas, New Year's Eve Specials, and up to six episodes per year that featured Raab and other celebrities playing Texas Hold'em.
In February 2001, Elton started as Raab's intern and sidekick and had frequent appearances on the show, for example as a quizmaster for the weekly rubric Blamieren oder Kassieren (literally: to blunder or to cash).
In 2006, Stefan Raab managed to start a new talent contest that was shown as a bonus within his TV total show. This was named "SSDSGPS" (acronym for: Stefan sucht den Super-Grand-Prix-Star, meaning Stefan seeks the Super Grand-Prix Star) and only had a total of four attendees; this was a mock on the acronym DSDS for the German version of Pop Idol running on RTL. The winner of the show, a German singer named Max Mutzke, then performed at the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany. Though he only made it to the eighth position, he later became a quite successful singer and artist in Germany and Austria. The show later had another singing competition that finally carried it to extremes – Raab's talent contest SSDSDSSWEMUGABRTLAD (acronym for: Stefan sucht den Superstar, der singen soll, was er möchte, und gerne auch bei RTL auftreten darf, meaning: "Stefan seeks the Superstar who shall sing what he wants and who may perform on RTL if he likes") was meant as a mock on RTL Television. He created it when Deutschland sucht den Superstar candidate Max Buskohl accepted an invitation to appear in TV total after he left the show in April 2007 but was denied this performance by RTL who cited their existing contract. Raab then started a campaign called Freiheit für Max Buskohl ("Freedom for Max Buskohl") that got attention for using an edited RAF kidnapping photo. After this campaign failed he started his new casting show. The winner was Stefanie Heinzmann. Raab self-deprecates himself by insulting RTL within the show.
From 2 February until 12 March 2010, the TV-broadcasters ProSieben and Das Erste (ARD) collaborated to find Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. After eight Unser Star für Oslo-Shows, Lena Meyer-Landrut was voted to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, where she won with 246 points, marking Germany's second victory at the competition after Nicole had won in 1982. Lena Meyer-Landrut also represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 taking place in Düsseldorf, where she finished tenth.
Raab announced his retirement from show business on 17 June 2015. The final episode was broadcast on 16 December 2015. It featured Raab and Elton reminiscing about the history of the show and concluded with Raab and Elton exiting the studio waving towards the audience.
Stefan Konrad Raab is a German television producer, businessman, and former entertainer and television host. From 1999 to 2015, he hosted the late-night comedy talk show TV total and has also created a number of other television shows, such as Schlag den Raab and Bundesvision Song Contest.
Maximilian Nepomuk Mutzke is a German singer, songwriter and television personality. He gained public interest in early 2004 when he won SSDSGPS, a talent contest hosted in Stefan Raab's late-night show TV total. Mutzke subsequently qualified for and won the national pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, Germany 12 Points!, and thus represented Germany with his debut single "Can't Wait Until Tonight" that year, eventually finishing eighth in a field of 24 participants. Meanwhile, "Can't Wait Until Tonight" debuted atop the German singles chart and became a top five hit in Austria and Switzerland. His eponymous debut album, a mixture of soul and pop songs in German and English language, was released in January 2005 and also reached number one in Germany, where it was certified gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI).
elton.tv was a German comedic late-night talk show hosted by Elton. It was originally shown once a week on ProSieben between 6 December 2001 and 27 March 2003.
Alexander Duszat, known professionally as Elton, is a German television presenter and comedian who gained recognition as Stefan Raab's sidekick in the long-running late-night comedy show TV total.
Deutschland sucht den Superstar is a German reality talent show. Part of the Idol franchise, it was created by British media mogul Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show Pop Idol, of which two series were broadcast between the years of 2001 and 2003. Debuting to mediocre ratings in November 2002 on the RTL network, the show has since become one of the most successful shows on German television.
The fourth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar was aired on German channel RTL from February to May 2007. Mark Medlock, the season's winner, was awarded a contract with Sony BMG. The judges in this season were Dieter Bohlen, Heinz Henn, Anja Lukaseder. It was hosted by Marco Schreyl and Tooske Ragas. The viewers chose the contestant's fates as they were able to call for their favorite contestant. The voting results were published on 7 May. The winner got a 10-year contract and €100,000. Twenty percent went to the winner's manager who was chosen by the creators.
Bruce Darnell is an American choreographer, model and television personality based in Germany.
Beat the Star is a British game show airing on television network ITV. It is the British version of the Schlag den Raab franchise, based on the German game show Schlag den Raab. A candidate who can beat a celebrity in a number of disciplines wins the jackpot, starting at £50,000.
Max Buskohl is a German singer who finished 4th in season 4 of Deutschland sucht den Superstar. Buskohl stated in an interview with Der Spiegel that he left DSDS voluntarily while RTL claims they threw out Max.
Monika Ivkic, also known as Monice, is an Austrian pop singer best known for achieving fourth place in the fifth season of the German casting show Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS). She released her first album I'm Gonna Make It in 2009. After the end of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, she had a specially published book released that was sold in Germany and Austria.
Lorielle London is a German transgender entertainer and television personality.
Germany participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Satellite" written by Julie Frost and John Gordon. The song was performed by Lena. The German entry for the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway was selected through the national final Unser Star für Oslo, organised by the German broadcaster ARD in collaboration with Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and private broadcaster ProSieben. The national final featured 20 competing artists and consisted of five heats, a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final held in February and March 2010. Contestants were selected to advance in the competition via public televote. Two contestants qualified to compete in the final where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. "Satellite" performed by Lena was selected as the German entry for Oslo after placing among the top two during the first round of voting and ultimately gaining the most votes in the second round.
Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut, also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer. She rose to fame after representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, winning the event with the song "Satellite". Both "Satellite" and her debut album My Cassette Player (2010) debuted at number one in Germany and became platinum sellers. With her three entries from the German national final Unser Star für Oslo, Meyer-Landrut set an all-time chart record in her home country by debuting with three songs in the top five of the German Singles Chart. She represented Germany for the second consecutive time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf with the song "Taken by a Stranger", finishing in tenth place.
"Satellite" is a song written by American songwriter Julie Frost, and Danish songwriter John Gordon. It is best known as Germany's winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, performed by German singer Lena Meyer-Landrut.
Jennifer Braun is a German singer. She was runner-up at the talent show Unser Star für Oslo, Germany's national pre-selection show for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Her first music single was "I Care for You".
Luca Hänni is a Swiss pop singer and television personality. He rose to fame in 2012 after winning the ninth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of the Idol franchise. He was the first non-German to do so and also the youngest ever winner of the show. Hänni's debut single, "Don't Think About Me", topped the singles charts in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. It was followed by the release of his debut album, My Name Is Luca (2012), which debuted atop the Austrian and Swiss Albums Charts and became a gold-seller in both countries. His second studio album, Living the Dream, released in 2013, became his second consecutive number-one album in Switzerland.
Sabine Heinrich is a German radio and television presenter.
This is a list of German television related events from 2012.
The Bundesvision Song Contest 2007 was the third edition of the annual televised Bundesvision Song Contest, a German reality singing contest. The contest was held on 9 February 2007 at the Tempodrom in Berlin, following Seeed's win in the 2006 contest in Hesse with the song "Ding". The contest was hosted by Stefan Raab, Johanna Klum, and Elton in the green room.
Max Mutzke is the debut studio album by German recording artist Max Mutzke. It was released by Rare Records and Warner Music Group on 7 January 2005 in German-speaking Europe after he had won both the talent contest SSDSGPS on the ProSieben late-night talk show TV total and Germany 12 Points!, Germany's national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.
