Huntress

February 16, 2020

On 2/14/2020 at 2:12 AM, wingwalker said:

His only real successful pairing was with Roman. I wish someone on the show would remember that Deniz is bisexual and give him a MALE love interest.

I think the last time that Deniz' bisexuality was somehow relevant was when Joscha was introduced in 2013 – but even at that point Deniz had only been involved with women for at least 2 years and he shrugged off Joscha's advances. All long-running characters on AWZ – that includes Simone, Richard, Vanessa, Jenny, Ingo, Marian, Lena, Maximilian, Ben and Deniz (half of the cast) – haven't really evolved in years and they keep on receiving the same stories over and over again. Hopefully that'll change now.

GZSZ is quite boring now as there's no big storyline happening. Everything is just filler material.

Katrin (Ulrike Frank, right) tries to mend her friendship with Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen), but Maren cannot forgive her (-> a few weeks ago, Maren's daughter Lilly performed surgery on Katrin's daughter Johanna which left Johanna paralyzed. Katrin tried to sue Lilly for medical malpractice).

Paul (Niklas Osterloh) and Emily (Anne Menden) are still happily married.

Yvonne (Gisa Zach) surprises Jo (Wolfgang Bahro) with a special costume.

Dr. Benedict (Jacob Weigert, left) wants to destroy Lilly's (Iris Mareike Steen) medical career and tells her that she's made a mistake once again as Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) looks on.

Erik (Patrick Heinrich) learns that he has a 16-year-old daughter which he fathered when he was only 15. He and Shirin (Gamze Senol) are shocked to receive the news.

Emily and Sunny (Valentina Pahde) make future plans for their booming handbag business.

Jo tells Erik and John (Felix von Jascheroff, middle) that their false testimony could land them in jail.

Katrin uses Brenda's (Annabella Zetsch) infatuation with Felix in order to get her company back.

Since they can't get a place in a nursery school for little Emma, Maren and Alexander (Clemens Löhr, left) plan to open their own day care center in the neighborhood. Leon (Daniel Fehlow), Jonas (Felix van Deventer) and Yvonne cheer them on.

Aron (guest star Frederik Funke) tries to flirt with Emily.

Erik tries to get to deal with his teenage daughter Merle (new contract star Ronja Herberich).

February 13, 2020

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks as always for the spoilers and photos. I see they still don't have much of worth for Deniz. I'm surprised he's still there.

Haha, me too... at some point years ago, he was pushed into the "romantic lead" role but his pairings never really worked. It's especially frustrating that they broke up Deniz and Jenny because of Marie. She never makes any mistakes and she's oh so precious.

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On a side note, Big Brother Germany was relaunched last Monday. The first 11 seasons ran on RTL2 between 2000 and 2011. After season 11, RTL2 gave up on the franchise.

In 2013, Sat.1 started airing Celebrity Big Brother (German title: Promi Big Brother). So far, there have been seven seasons, one each year.

In 2015, a 12th season of regular Big Brother was broadcast on sixx, a small channel belonging to the Pro7/Sat.1 group. Ratings were awful and Big Brother disappeared once again from the public eye.

Now, Big Brother is back – this time on Sat.1. The show airs weekly recaps Monday to Friday at 7 pm and there's a live show every Monday featuring evictions and whatnot.
However, unlike past seasons, there are no recaps on the weekends, and there's no 24/7 livestream, either.

The concept has also been changed. There are two houses, each inhabitated by 7 contestants.

The audience can rate the contestants via the show's official app.
The Glass House (Glashaus) is full of luxuries. The contestants receive their "daily value" every day.
The Block House (Blockhaus) is modest and the contestants have limited resources. The contestants don't get to know their "daily value".
Every week, there's a match and the winner can decide if they want to switch houses or if somebody else has to switch instead.

These are the 14 contestants: https://www.sat1.de/tv/big-brother/die-bewohner/mehr

February 13, 2020

Some ratings:

Monday, February 3rd, 2020:

Friday, February 7th, 2020:

The final episode of "Herz über Kopf" (#113) aired on February 7th, 2020 as the show was canceled due to low ratings. A talk show hosted by Marco Schreyl (former host of German Idol) has taken over the timeslot at 5 pm.

At the same time, it looks as if AWZ has finally awoken from its deep slumber: Last fall, Damien Lott was hired as the show's new producer. Previously, he had worked as a producer for GZSZ for many years. Now his material eventually starts airing and a lot of things have been shaken up:

– Nathalie has been moved into Maximilian's orbit and away from boring Finn.

– Two new contract roles have been added: In January, Julia Wiedmann and Franziska van der Heide arrived as sisters Lucie and Ina Ziegler. Lucie has lost her boyfriend in an accident, and she believes that Moritz received his heart. Meanwhile, Ina works as a cook at Marian's diner. Apparently, she's a lesbian.
– Married couple Marian and Lena, who have spent the last few years more or less on the backburner, have received more airtime and were eventually broken up when Lena started an affair with Niclas Nadolny. This is the first time since Birte Glang took over as Lena that the character has anything worthwhile to do.

– Another married couple, Jenny and Deniz, have also broken up and Deniz has been paired up with Marie (aka "Little Miss Perfect").

– Jenny felt betrayed by her family and moved out of the family mansion. One recent cliffhanger saw her slipping on the exterior staircase, falling to the ground and staring at the sky as she became unconscious. In a dream scene, she imagined reuniting with Deniz and making up with Simone, Richard and Vanessa. Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen was so brillant in all those scenes. Jenny fell into a coma, but regained consciousness soon after. Vanessa moved her back into the family mansion but Jenny refuses to eat because she's done with her family. Vanessa blackmails Ingo to work as Jenny's physical therapist. Looks like Jenny and Ingo will be paired up in the long run which is quite exciting because they first used to tease this couple 8 years ago after Jenny had run over Ingo's wife Annette.

– Figure skating princess Chiara has a drunk one-night-stand with Ina and will also be moved into Richard's orbit – her father's nemesis.

Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) visits a comatose Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen) in the hospital as a jealous Marie (Cheyenne Pahde) watches them from the outside

Jenny is awake

Vanessa (Julia Augustin) and Simone (Tatjana Clasing) talk about Jenny's condition

Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) and Simone take care of their grandson

During the press conference for "InkaKraft", tensions rise between Niclas (Ron Holzschuh, left) and Moritz (Tijan Njie, right) as Ronny (Bela Klentze), Chiara (Alexandra Fonsatti) and Marie look on.

Marian (Sam Eisenstein) is jealous when Lena (Birte Glang) flirts with other men.

Ina (Franziska van der Heide) becomes friends with Ingo (André Dietz).

Lucie (Julia Wiedmann) tries to get closer to Moritz.

Chiara comforts Nathalie (Amrei Haardt, left) after Maximilian has stood Nathalie up.

Deniz and Marie want to be there for one another.

February 5, 2020

23 hours ago, Gray Bunny said:

I was just referring to Jo & Billy interaction in the FIRST season.

Oh, okay IIRC, Billy tried to make the moves on Jo in her first or second episode when he helped her moving in. She was acting all mysterious and Billy thought she was hiding something.

Speaking of mysteries, I always wonder why at the beginning of the show only 5 of the 8 apartments were occupied. I mean, we saw some random couple checking their mailbox in the pilot episode (?) and there were also bicycles standing in front of apartment 7/8, but none of the other characters ever mentioned other residents living at Melrose Place. Plus, these "ghost" neighbors were clearly not invited to any pool party (or to any party that seemed to happen for every little occasion during early season 1). When Jo moved in, Rhonda was happy to move to apartment 4 in an instant, meaning that that apartment was definitely empty.

Even in the later seasons, some of the apartments were vacant. Especially apartment 8 which was unused for most of the show's run.

February 3, 2020

2 hours ago, Gray Bunny said:

In the 1st season, there was one single interaction between Jo and Billy in the episode when his father died. Maybe they were chemistry testing the characters, or it was just character development, or maybe they just needed to fill time. But yeah, that was their only scene alone together.

Are you sure about that? I remember at least one scene at the end of season 3 where Jo confronted Billy about his upcoming wedding to Brooke. I think she told him that she wouldn't attend the ceremony because of her loyalty to Alison.

Speaking of random characters interacting, how about the episode when Billy and Kimberly almost became roommates at the end of season 1? In the later seasons, Kimberly and Billy never interacted at all. Billy and Alison also never shared a story with Sydney.

Regarding the characters being fresh out of college, I think Billy had a storyline in season 1 where he to pay back his student loan.

Was it ever established that Jane, Matt or Rhonda went to college? Of course Matt later studied medicine. Jane was supposed to be the youngest resident of the apartment complex (even though Amy Locane was the youngest cast member).

How old was Sydney when she first appeared? She still went to school in season 1, meaning she should have been 18?

I think I've posted this before but the characters were aged drastically between seasons 3 and 4. They suddenly acted as if they were in their late 30s and not mid 20s. Nobody was enjoying the L. A. nightlife. By season 7, everyone looked really old.

ETA: I agree that Jake became useless after season 3 - which is sad because he could have been needed as a moral center in the later seasons, just like Alison. Those two characters could have worked on their own.

With Billy, he was useless without Alison. I also think that Jane and Sydney needed each other as sisters and rivals. They didn't really work in their own separate story lines. Sydney's storylines in seasons 4 and 5 were a snooze fest.

February 3, 2020

The 65th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The two semi-finals will take place on May 12th and 14th, and the Grand Final will be held on May 16th, 2020.

This year, 41 countries will compete for the trophy:

Albania
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bulgaria (returning after missing the 2019 contest)
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine (returning after missing the 2019 contest)
United Kingdom

2019 participants that will not compete in 2020:

Hungary
Montenegro

Former participants that will not return:

Andorra (last participation was in 2009)
Bosnia & Herzegovina (last participation was in 2016)
Luxembourg (last participation was in 1993)
Monaco (last participation was in 2006)
Slovakia (last participation was in 2012)
Turkey (last participation was in 2012)

The first 3 songs for 2020 have been chosen:

Albania 2020: Arilena Ara / "Fall from the Sky"
Language: English

Czech Republic 2020: Benny Cristo / "Kemama"
Language: English

Spain 2020: Blas Cantó / "Universo"
Language: Spanish

November 28, 2019

On November 21st, Unter uns held a big anniversary party celebrating 25 years on the air. All current and several former cast members were in attendance.

Petra Blossey said Goodbye on Instagram:

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Since the soap year 2019 is almost over and previews are available until December 27th, it's time for a little retrospective.

Current soap schedule:

2.10 pm Rote Rosen (ARD)

3.10 pm Sturm der Liebe (ARD)

5.00 pm Herz über Kopf (RTL)

5.30 pm Unter uns (RTL)

7.05 pm Alles was zählt (RTL)

7.40 pm Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (RTL)

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (1992-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 251 (#6667 to #6918 [#6749, #6750 and #6751 were shown as a 90 minute episode on the same day])
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/gute-zeiten-schlechte-zeiten-gzsz/besetzung

Contract arrivals:

Patrick Heinrich as Erik Fritsche (May 2019-present; recurring previously)
Nils Schulz as Robert Klee (March 2019-present)
Gisa Zach as Yvonne Bode (January 2019-present)
Annabella Zetsch as Brenda Schubert (September 2019-present; recurring previously)

Contract departures:

Maximilian Braun as Luis Ahrens (August 2017-June 2019)
Eric Stehfest as Chris Lehmann (December 2014-March 2019)
Lea Marlen Woitack as Sophie Lindh (March 2014-February 2019)

Unter uns (1994-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 249 (#6016 to #6265)
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/unter-uns-uu/besetzung

Contract arrivals:

Josephine Becker as Leni Schäfer (April 2019-present)

Contract departures:

Petra Blossey as Irene Weigel-Küpper (November 1994-July 2019)
Linda König as Larissa Huber (April 2018-October 2019)
Astrid Leberti as Andrea Huber (April 2017-August 2019)

Alles was zählt (2006-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 249 (#3094 to #3343)
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/alles-was-zaehlt-awz/besetzung

Contract arrivals:

Alexandra Fonsatti as Chiara Nadolny (November 2019-present; recurring previously)
Birte Glang as Lena Öztürk #3 (February 2019-present)
Amrei Haardt as Nathalie Reichenbach (April 2019-present)
Ron Holzschuh as Niclas Nadolny (November 2019-present; recurring previously)

Contract departures:

Franziska Benz as Michelle Bauer (February 2016-September 2019)
Madeleine Krakor as Steffi König (October 2018-November 2019)
Maike Johanna Reuter as Pauline Reusch (October 2017-April 2019)

Freundinnen (2018-2019, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 72 (#87 to #159)

The final episode aired on April 12th, 2019.

Alles oder nichts (2018-2019, Sat.1 + Sat.1 Emotions)
Total episodes in 2019: 57 (#48 to #105)
The show ended its run on Sat.1 on January 2nd, 2019 (episode #48), and the remaining episodes were shown on Sat.1 Emotions.
The final episode aired on March 22nd, 2019.

Herz über Kopf (2019-present, RTL)

Total episodes in 2019: 86 (#1 to #86)

The first episode aired on August 26th, 2019.

Rote Rosen (2006-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2019: 240 (#2801 to #3041)
Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/rote-rosen/darsteller/index.html

Sturm der Liebe (2005-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2019: 233 (#3065 to #3298)
Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/sturm-der-liebe/darsteller/index.html

Lindenstraße (1985-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2019: 44 (#1701 to #1745)
Current cast: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/index.html

The show will end its run in March/April 2020.

November 22, 2019

Now it's official: Petra Blossey, the last remaining original cast member, has left Unter uns after 25 years.

In July 2019, Blossey's alter ego Irene Weigel-Küpper left to visit her daughter Anna in Japan. On the episode dated November 28th, 2019, Irene's husband Robert (Luca Maric) and foster-daughter Sina (Valea Scalabrino) impatiently await Irene's return at the airport. They are shocked when Irene eventually "returns" – in a coffin...

Petra Blossey debuted as Irene Weigel on the show's 1st episode on November 28th, 1994. Born in the former German Democratic Republic, Irene, née Schwarz, fled to West Germany in the 1970s, moved to Cologne, and married master baker Wolfgang Weigel. They had three children: Chris (aged 19 at the show's debut), Till (aged 16) and Anna (aged 12). Back then, the extended Weigel family also consisted of Wolfgang's mother Margot Weigel, Margot's sister Sophie Himmel, Irene's brother Dr. Olaf Schwarz, and Olaf's daughter Antonia Schwarz. These characters were gradually phased out over the years, with only Till remaining on the show (after a recast). Olaf departed in 1995, Antonia and Chris in 1997, Margot died off-screen in 2006 (the actress passed away in 2005), and Sophie died off-screen in 2012. Till left in 1996, but returned in 2000. Anna originally left in 2004, returned as a recast in 2006, and received a third recast in 2009, with the final actress leaving in 2014.

Over the past 25 years, Irene lived through a lot of trials and tribulations: She became pregnant with a disabled baby, but suffered a miscarriage. She was hit on by a lesbian friend of hers. She lost her memory and had amnesia, not recognizing her entire family, for months. Wolfgang left her for a younger woman, but returned to Irene after a while. In 2009, Wolfgang died of a heart attack. Irene was heartbroken for months, but found a new love in stubborn handyman Robert Küpper, whom she eventually married. For years, Irene battled Wolfgang's illegitimate son Rolf Jäger, who terrorized the neighborhood with his sick antics. On the other hand, she gladly took in Wolfgang's illegitimate daughter Sina who appeared in town after Wolfgang's death. Irene was a tower of strength for every neighbor of the apartment house Schillerallee 10.

According to an extensive interview, Petra Blossey decided to quit Unter uns at her own request. She taped her final scenes in April 2019 and moved back to her native Potsdam (near Berlin) to be with her family.

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In other news:

After being with the show for roughly one year, Madeleine Krakor is leaving Alles was zählt. The red-haired actress debuted in the contract role of Steffi König in Oktober 2018. Steffi was a boring character from the get-go. She became Ingo's (André Dietz) new girlfriend of the year and was only obsessed with becoming pregnant – but Ingo is infertile. When she met her former crush Sören, she had a one-night-stand with him. Of course she became pregnant by him, and now Steffi's leaving town with Sören.
In turn, actress Franziska van der Heide has been cast in the new contract role Ina Ziegler. Van der Heide is best known for her stint on GZSZ where she played streetkid Mieze on contract from 2013 to 2015. In a first press release, Ina is said to be the sister of an established character. She is also a professional cook. (And she will probably also only last a year on this incestuous show.)

Seriously, AWZ has been so boring for ages. Apparently they can't afford more than 16 regular cast members – but instead of using all of them, only ~ 8 of them get frontburner storylines while the others are just filler material. In addition, recurring actors Alexandra Fonsatti (Chiara) and Ron Holzschuh (Niclas) are featured more than most regulars. Why they don't drop all this dead weight and hire some new fresh faces is beyond me.

November 14, 2019

This situation is similar to what the German soap "Unter uns" faced in the summer of 2009. Back then, the show suffered from low demos and was rumoured to be canceled.
Instead, broadcaster RTL slashed the budget, fired a few cast members, and decided that production would shut down twice each year for roughly 4 months (December to February and June to August) to save costs. From then on, they filmed 7 to 8 episodes a week so that the show could still run through the whole year.

Before each hiatus, all the cast members were released from their contracts and had to register as unemployed (in Germany, you receive ~ 60 percent of your former salary for at least a year if you're registered as unemployed). Departing cast members were usually written out before a hiatus, so that most of the cast returned when filming resumed. In the meantime, they could pursue any other project they wanted to (doing primetime guest spots, playing theater, etc.)

In 2016, they reduced the hiatus to 2 months in total and went back to filming 6 episodes a week.

10 years later and UU is still on the air. This year, they've managed to increase their demos quite nicely.

So not all hope is lost

November 13, 2019

This is the new intro for Unter uns which will debut during the anniversary week later this month. Again, there will be two different versions.

The show's logo and the theme have been updated once again.

Version A: Jens Hajek (Benedikt Huber) –Antonia Michalsky (Saskia Weigel Huber) – Benjamin Heinrich (Bambi Hirschberger) – Tabea Heynig (Britta Schönfeld) – Kai Noll (Rufus Sturm) – Jakob Graf (Luke Färber, new contract role) – Josephine Becker (Leni Schäfer) – Milos Vukovic (Paco Weigel) – Timothy Boldt (Ringo Beckmann) – Isabell Hertel (Ute Kiefer)

November 3, 2019

19 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

Unfortunately in usual Thudley fashion by early 2006 the show lost its momentum and sputtered out between the Thomas & Gabriela mess, Hector and Taylor, Sally losing Spectra and being forced to work in Megan's old job as Forrester receptionist/secretary, and adding Mario Lopez and Antonio Sabàto Jr. to the cast just did the show no favors whatsoever.

The Thomas/Gabriela wedding storyline happened in the summer of 2005, shortly after Taylor had returned. Antonio Sabato was also added in the summer of 2005 – they brought him in as a person from Taylor's past, then he kissed Brooke, and eventually he was interested in Bridget. I thought Dante only had chemistry with Felicia but that Dante/Felicia/Bridget triangle story went nowhere and was dropped in late 2006.

In turn, the Megan/Massimo storyline happened in the spring of 2006

October 21, 2019

On November 28th, 2019, Unter uns celebrates its 25th anniversary.

The official press release says:

Quote

From November 25th to 29th, Unter uns celebrates its 25th birthday – an anniversary that packs a punch. On TVnow, the anniversary begins a week earlier with an exclusive extra episode that is only available for streaming. For its 25th anniversary, Unter uns closes an important chapter of its history forever, but at the time sets a new course for all the residents of Schillerallee 10. The neighbors will go through every emotional facet that one can imagine.

Gay couple Easy (Lars Steinhöfel) and Ringo (Timothy Boldt) will tie the knot during a romantic wedding on a castle with all their friends. Two faces from the past attend the wedding: Ringo's twin sister (Barbara Prakopenka*) and Easy's best friend Jan (Andreas Büngen**) return to the show for guest appearances.

During the party, the smoldering dispute between Till (Ben Ruedinger) and Conor Weigel (Yannik Meyer) eventually escalates. How far will Conor go in his boundless hatred for his father?

At the same time, the Weigel family awaits the return of matriarch Irene (Petra Blossey) from Japan – but the reunion doesn't turn out as expected. Irene also doesn't arrive alone: Who is the stranger on her side and what does he want in Cologne?

* Barbara Prakopenka played Kira Beckmann on contract from 2012 to 2014.
** Andreas Büngen played Jan Gräser on contract from 2002 to 2009.

The wedding was filmed at the same castle that was used as the setting for Verbotene Liebe from 2003 to its cancellation in 2014.

There's also going to be a funeral as pictures from the filming have leaked online. There's still speculation that Irene may only return as a corpse... However, Benedikt could also be the dead person as his ex-wife Andrea (Astrid Leberti) and his son Valentin (Aaron Koszuta) are rumoured to attend the funeral.

Official Contract Cast during the 25th anniversary:

Josephine Becker – Leni Schäfer (2019-present)
Sharon Berlinghoff – Vivien Köhler (2018-present)

Petra Blossey – Irene Weigel-Küpper, née Schwarz (1994-present)
Timothy Boldt – Ringo Beckmann (2012-present)

Andrea Brix – Roswitha Küpper-Pütz (2016-present; recurring previously)
Claudelle Deckert – Eva Wagner, formerly Weigel (2001-2006; 2008-present; recurring otherwise)

Jens Hajek – Benedikt Huber (2016-present)
Benjamin Heinrich – Benno "Bambi" Hirschberger (2013-present)
Isabell Hertel – Ute Kiefer, formerly Kern, Weigel, Fink (1995-present)
Tabea Heynig – Britta Schönfeld, formerly Sturm (2010-present)

Luca Maric – Robert Küpper (2015-present)
Yannik Meyer – Conor Weigel (2018-present)
Antonia Michalsky – Saskia Huber, née Weigel (2017-present)
Alexander Milo – Jakob Huber (2017-present)

Patrick Müller – Tobias Lassner (2006-present)
Kai Noll – Rufus Sturm (2003-present)
Ben Ruedinger – Till Weigel #2 (2000-present)
Valea Scalabrino – Sina Hirschberger, née Uhland (2010-present)
Lars Steinhöfel – Ingo "Easy" Winter (2005-present)
Milos Vukovic – Paco Weigel (2000-present)

1. Kira, Ringo, Easy and Tobias; 2. Paco, Tobias, Jan and Easy, 3. Sina and Robert, 4. Till, Ute and Conor

October 11, 2019

September 3, 2019

On 8/7/2019 at 4:04 PM, DRW50 said:

They seem to have taken the photos away.

What a surprise

On AWZ, Franziska Benz departs the show on September 9th, 2019, when her character Michelle Bauer is killed off. During the premiere of the figure skating show, Michelle gets attacked by an assassin and is fatally wounded.

Michelle was introduced in February 2016 as Simone Steinkamp's niece. A successful figure skater, Michelle was Marie Schmidt's biggest rival on the squad. Other storylines included her troubled relationship with her estranged father Vincent Thalbach, who turned out to be a drug lord. Michelle experienced a downward spiral in 2018, feeling that nobody really cared about her, but she was eventually rescued by Maximilian von Altenburg who gave her new courage to face life. Michelle went back to normal and even became friends with her former nemesis Marie. She found her one true love in Moritz Brunner (Tijan Njie) and competed for the main role in the figure skating show, successfully outdoing Chiara Nadolny. Following Chiara's failure, Susanne Gebhardt, Chiara's coach, snaps and hires an assassin to take care of Michelle.

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On GZSZ, former recurring star Annabella Zetsch (Brenda Schubert) has been placed on contract and reappears on today's episode. Brenda was introduced in the summer of 2018 as a classmate of Luis Ahrens (Maximilian Braun) whom she blackmailed with a video showing him masturbating. Brenda's bullying almost drove Luis into suicide. She was eventually punished for her actions and departed in October 2018. In April 2019, Brenda reappeared for two episodes where it was revealed that Brenda is Robert Klee's (Nils Schulz) daughter. She apologized to Luis, but disappeared again. Now Brenda moves in with Robert and his new girlfriend Nina (Maria Wedig), Luis's mother. In a press release, she's described as having become a new person who has learned from her past mistakes.

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On UU, fans are worried about Petra Blossey (Irene Weigel), the show's only remaining original cast member, who hasn't been seen on-screen in weeks. In July 2019, Irene went to visit her youngest Anna in Japan, but so far there's no news of her coming back. The 63-year old actress even missed the annual fan event in August, and has posted cryptical posts on Instagram.

The show celebrates its 25th anniversary in November 2019. So far, it has been revealed that a wedding will take place (most likely that of gay couple Easy and Ringo) and that former contract star Barbara Prakopenka (Kira Beckmann) will return for a guest appearance. Prakopenka starred as Ringo's twin sister from 2012 to 2014 and has since moved on to a successful primetime career.

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RTL's new daily crime drama "Herz über Kopf" debuted on August 26th, 2019 at 5 pm. So far, the show has only attracted a meager 0.5 million viewers with a market share of 6%.

Official promo:

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Flashback: GZSZ – Episode Count October 1993

This is the month where the Panty Hose Murderer storyline began and the first two murders, Hilda and Yasemin, took place.
For a half-hour show, the show had a large cast back then, but every character had its purpose and was involved in at least one storyline.

A total of 18 episodes aired this month.
No new episodes on 10/19/1993, 10/21/1993 and 10/22/1993 [reasons unknown]

01. Frank-Thomas Mende (Clemens Richter) : 11
** Hannelore Minkus (Beatrice Zimmermann) : 11
** Michael O. Rüdiger (Matthias Zimmermann) : 11
04. Angela Neumann (Vera Richter) : 10
** Sandra Keller (Tina Ullrich) : 10
** Udo Thies (Dr. Michael Gundlach) : 10
** Victoria Sturm (Milla Engel) : 10
08. Andrea-Kathrin Loewig (Iris Gehbauer) : 9
** Claudia Weiske (Elke Opitz) : 9
** Hans Christiani (A.R. Daniel) : 9
** Sali Landricina (Peter Becker) : 9
** Saskia Valencia (Saskia Rother) : 9
13. Gerd Blahuschek (Hartmut Söllner) : 8
** Heinke Hüttmann (Karin Becker) : 8
** Lisa Riecken (Elisabeth Meinhart) : 8
** Mirjam Köfer (Diana Richter) : 8
** Timmo Niesner (Tommy Walter) : 8
** Wolfgang Bahro (Dr. Jo Gerner) : 8
19. Alexander Kiersch (Patrick Graf) : 7
** Andreas Elsholz (Heiko Richter) : 7
** Fenja Rühl (Barbara Wiebe) : 7
22. Carolina Squella (Nicole Ehlert) : 6
** Ines Victoria (Yasemin Mutlu) : 6
** Marcus Ulbricht (Tobias Gericke) : 6
25. Julian Scheunemann (Charlie Fierek) : 5
** Michael Trischan (Jürgen Borchert) : 5
27. Christiane Reiff (Gerda Becker) : 4
** Matthias Matz (André Holm) : 4
** Robert Schröter (Jack) : 4
30. Alexander Eisenfeld (Olli Engel) : 3
** Dagobert Walter (Mario Münster) : 3
** Debora Weigert (Hilda Berg) : 3
** Werner Kanitz (Erwin Becker) : 3
34. Peter Zintner (Heinrich Rother) : 2
35. Christoph Piesk (Oswald Löpelmann) : 1
** Constanze Roeder (Mrs. Rother) : 1
** Jochen Senf (Dr. Dietrich Romberg) : 1
** Walter Jacob (Rudolf Söllner) : 1

CONTRACT ARRIVALS *:

Wolfgang Bahro (Dr. Jo Gerner) [02/03/1993]
Saskia Valencia (Saskia Rother) [03/08/1993]
Mirjam Köfer (Diana Richter) [03/24/1993]
Timmo Niesner (Tommy Walter) [04/02/1993]

Dirk Meier (Florian May) [04/13/1993]

Ines Victoria (Yasemin Mutlu) [04/26/1993]

Udo Thies (Dr. Michael Gundlach) [04/27/1993]

Victoria Sturm (Milla Engel) [04/29/1993]

Andrea-Kathrin Loewig (Iris Gehbauer) [05/05/1993]

Matthias Matz (André Holm) [06/11/1993; recurring previously]

Fenja Rühl (Barbara Wiebe) [07/05/1993]

Michael O. Rüdiger (Matthias Zimmermann) [07/19/1993]

Michael Trischan (Jürgen Borchert) [08/03/1993]

Gerd Blahuschek (Hartmut Söllner) [10/28/1993; recurring previously]

Marcus Ullbricht (Tobias Gericke) [10/28/1993; recurring previously]

Heinke Hüttmann (Karin Becker) [11/02/1993; recurring previously]

Hannelore Minkus (Beatrice Zimmermann) [11/05/1993; recurring previously]

CONTRACT DEPARTURES:

Suzanne Ziellenbach (Lilo Gottschick) [04/08/1993]

Natascha Pfeiffer (Marina Geppert) [04/16/1993]
Thomas Gohlke (Karsten Richter) [04/16/1993]
Marie-Christine Herriger (Julia Backhoff) [04/26/1993]

Johannes Baasner (Dr. Frank Ullrich) [04/28/1993]

Dirk Meier (Florian May) [09/02/1993]

Ines Victoria (Yasemin Mutlu) [10/26/1993]

Mirjam Köfer (Diana Richter) [11/23/1993]

Timmo Niesner (Tommy Walter) [11/29/1993]

Marcus Ullbricht (Tobias Gericke) [12/17/1993]

* The show only received detailed closing credits beginning with episode 350 (10/08/1993). Before episode 350, the cast was listed alphabetically with only the performers' names appearing and no distinction between main and guest roles was made. For example, in some episodes actor Zsolt Bács-Bayer was listed first in the credits despite only appearing sporadically in a C-Story – but since his last name begins with a "B", he was always listed first. In many episodes, several performers were even missing from the credits. Beginning with episode 350, character names were added to the credits (although only first names and in some cases, only their last names, for example "Dr. Gundlach" or "Mrs. Meinhart"). Finally, guest and recurring performers were divided from the main cast with an "And" credit.

Thus, contract arrival dates for performers who debuted before episode 350 are their first appearances. They were all listed as contract roles in episode 350, and Bahro, Valencia, Köfer, Niesner, Meier, Victoria, Thies and Sturm were added to the opening credits in episode 272 (06/14/1993).

The only actor who is still on the show as of today is Wolfgang Bahro as Dr. Jo Gerner.

August 20, 2019

18 hours ago, FrenchFan said:

They were but not on contract. They were recurring during first part of the year. Not sure exactly when they were upped to contract during 1989.

The strange thing is that both Saul and Darla were not added to the opening until 1993.
Darla was bumped to recurring in 1996 and was removed from the opening with the December 1996 update. Saul must have been taken off contract in 1995 (months before the actor's death).

A few other short-lived contract roles weren't added to the opening at all during the first few years of the show.
From 1993 on, I think every contract role appeared on the opening at least for a short while, even some of the child actors (the pre-Jacob Young Rick and the pre-Jennifer Finnigan Bridget). They started updating the credits more often with up to 4 different versions each year.

August 16, 2019

If I remember correctly, Jessica Walter was dumped because she was too expensive. She was supposed to return for guest appearances later on, but that never materialized.

Lori was part of the main cast until the season 3 finale and returned for a single guest appearance in the season 5 premiere where she had like 3 or 4 lines.

I don't remember Ryan claiming to live at Melrose Place – and I watched every single episode of that rotten show He was shown to be living at an apartment complex, but it wasn't Melrose Place.

August 16, 2019

8 hours ago, Vee said:

It was a storyline and an interesting one. The show was crap but Kelly maybe getting involved with Rob Estes was one of the few things that held my interest.

Same here. In season 1, they teased this Kelly/Brenda/Ryan triangle for weeks which eventually went nowhere and the juiciest part (Brenda hooking up with Ryan) happened off-screen. When Brenda was out of the picture, Kelly finally slept with Ryan, but then the story was dropped and in season 2, Ryan was paired with Naomi's sister Jen (whom I found more interesting than any of the teens except Naomi and Adrianna). Kelly continued appearing as a supporting character in Silver's story but apparently left town without an explanation (and left Silver living in her garage).

But that was 90210's biggest mistake... dropping interesting stories left and right, and repeating the same boring stuff (triangles and more triangles) every other week. The writers really thought their audience was stupid and not able to remember things that happened two episodes ago.

August 7, 2019

Haven't done this in a long time...

Preview Pics August 2019

Unter uns

01. Andrea (Astrid Leberti) accepts Rufus's (Kai Noll) marriage proposal 02. Leni (Josephine Becker) tells Paco (Milos Vukovic) that she is his daughter 03. Andrea tells her father Robert (Luca Maric) that she wants to leave Schillerallee (which she eventually does) 04. Ringo (Timothy Boldt) and Easy (Lars Steinhöfel) spend a nice holiday together 05. Ute (Isabell Hertel) comforts Benedikt (Jens Huber) after Andrea has left town with their newborn baby 06. Vivien (Sharon Berlinghoff) suffers from exam anxiety 07. Eva (Claudelle Deckert) is shocked when Till declares war on her 08. Jakob's (Alexander Milo, right) colleague Samuel (Alexander Koch) shows his true colors 09. Having returned from rehab, Larissa (Linda König) tells her father Benedikt that she wants to keep her distance 10. Saskia (Antonia Michalsky) and Paco argue about Paco's attitude towards Leni 11. Till (Ben Ruedinger) is not impressed by Rufus's advice 12. Dream sequence: Ringo dreams that Britta (Tabea Heynig) treats him like a puppy

Alles was zählt

01. Lena (Birte Glang) apologizes to Alexander (Ralf-Maximilian Prack) for not having enough time for him 02. Nathalie (Amrei Haardt, left) is shocked that Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) has contacted Finn's father without his knowledge 03. Simone (Tatjana Clasing) has to live with the fact that her long-kept secret has been revealed: Vanessa is not Richard's daughter 04. Moritz (Tijan Njie, left) can't deal with Niclas's (Ron Holzschuh) behavior 05. Lena tries to seduce Marian (Sam Öztürk) 06. Vanessa (Julia Augustin) starts an argument with Simone 07. Dream sequence: Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen, right) dreams that Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) has an affair with Marie (Cheyenne Pahde) 08. Jenny finds out that Deniz has indeed slept with Marie and Vanessa comforts her sister 09. Michelle (Franziska Benz) is disappointed when Niclas doesn't want to give her the lead role in his musical 10. Steffi (Madeleine Krakor) and Ingo (André Dietz) plan on adopting a child 11. An unhinged Susanne (Hanne Wolharn) has manipulated Michelle's skates 12. Richard (Silvian-Pierre Leirich) and Jenny avoid Simone

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

01. Robert's ex Kerstin (Charlotte Sieglin, right) tries to breed discord between Robert (Nils Schulz) and Nina (Maria Wedig) 02. Toni (Olivia Marei, left) and Shirin (Gamze Senol, middle) argue about Erik as Sunny (Valentine Pahde) tries to intervene 03. Yvonne (Gisa Zach, left) and Laura (Chryssanthi Kavazi) are confident that Laura's condition will soon improve 04. After Robert has decided that he needs to leave for South Africa, he and Nina agree on having a long-distance relationship 05. Yvonne and Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) are worried about Laura 06. Shirin and Toni come to Erik's rescue 07. Lilly (Iris Mareike Steen, right) is annoyed by Emily's (Anne Menden) selfish actions 08. Toni and Erik (Patrick Heinrich) can't hide their feelings for one another 09. Katrin (Ulrike Frank) is back in town and is greeted by her best friend Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen) 10. Emily feels pressured when Paul (Niklas Osterloh) wants to start a family with her 11. Yvonne and Felix (Thaddäus Meilinger) wait for news about Laura 12. Shirin and John (Felix von Jascheroff) plan on helping Erik getting back on track

July 4, 2019

Some casting and general news from the past few weeks:

RTL has now officially cancelled its 4th daily soap "Freundinnen". The last new episode was shown on April 12th, 2019, and the last re-run was shown on June 28th, 2019. This fall, probably in September, a new daily soap called "Herz über Kopf" will debut at 5 pm. Until then, a reality format called "Meine Geschichte – Mein Leben" (My Story – My Life) airs in this difficult timeslot.
The cancellation of "Freundinnen" has definitely helped UU's ratings: For months, the veteran show had been in a ratings slump due to its weak lead-in. On July 2nd, UU eventually reached its highest ratings of the year so far with a market share of 16.2% among the target audience.
On the same day, AWZ also reached its highest ratings of the year with a market share of 17% among the target audience.
On GZSZ, actor Patrick Heinrich returned to the show on May 2nd, 2019 in the role of bad boy Erik Fritsche – this time as a contract role.
In 2018, Erik was introduced as Shirin's (Gamze Senol) husband who was just released from prison. Shirin hadn't told anybody about her husband's existence, not even her business partner John (Felix von Jascheroff) who was slowly falling in love with Shirin. When John and Shirin went to Mallorca to celebrate the birthday of John's siblings, the jealous Erik followed them and nearly killed John. He was sent to prison again. Now Erik is back in town and tries to prove that he's changed. Of course everybody avoids him, especially Shirin and John. Erik's working undercover for the police to bust another drug dealer – his own half brother – but the only person who knows this is cop Toni Ahrens (Olivia Marei). Of course Toni falls in love with Erik and tries to defend his actions.
In turn, Maximilian Braun departed the show at the end of June 2019. Braun had played teenager Luis Ahrens for roughly two years. Even though he was a contract role, Luis only had one major storyline in 2018 when he was blackmailed with a video showing him masturbating, but for the most part he was just a supporting role and a sidekick for his mother Nina (Maria Wedig) and his best friend Jonas (Felix van Deventer).
On UU, actress Josephine Becker joined the show in late April 2019 in the contract role of Leni Schäfer. Leni is a teenage girl who arrived at Schillerallee to find her biological father. Two men are put on her shortlist: Paco Weigel (Milos Vukovic) or Easy Winter (Lars Steinhöfel). The latter came out as gay in 2017 and has been in a relationship with Ringo Beckmann (Timothy Boldt) for a while now. Leni announced that Easy was her father, which strained Easy and Ringo's relationship. However, this month it is revealed that Leni was lying and that she knew all along that Paco is her true father.
Paternity issues also play a role on AWZ where the history of the Steinkamp family is rewritten: Vanessa (Julia Augustin) finds out that Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) is not her biological father! Her mother Simone (Tatjana Clasing) had an affair with Niclas Nadolny (Ron Holzschuh), and Niclas is Vanessa's real father.
At the beginning of the show (in 2006), Vanessa fell in love with her best friend Ben, not knowing that Ben was the secret child of Richard and Nadja Roschinski. When the truth came out a while later, Vanessa wanted to commit suicide. The paternity reveal means that Vanessa and Ben aren't half-siblings after all. Hopefully, the show won't go down that route and pair up Vanessa and Ben after all these years.
Also on AWZ, former UU actress Amrei Haardt joined the contract cast at the end of May 2019 as Nathalie Reichenbach, Isabelle's (Ania Niedieck) poor cousin.
In turn, Ania Niedieck will be going on maternity leave later this summer. The blonde actress previously took an extended hiatus from the show after giving birth to her first child in 2016. Niedieck has been part of the contract cast since 2010.
Original cast member Madlen Kaniuth departed the show on May 24th, 2019. The ginger-haired actress had played the recurring role of nosy secretary Brigitte Schnell since the very first episode in September 2006. Even though she never had a major storyline of her own, Brigitte was always involved in the lives of the Steinkamp family and had one night stands with several leading men.

June 25, 2019

Since there's not much going on with the daily soaps right now, I finally got around to watch a primetime series that first aired in 2016.

"Ku'damm '56" is a mini-series consisting of 3 parts that takes place in Berlin in 1956.
"Ku'damm" is the local name of "Kurfürstendamm", one of the most famous streets in Berlin. During the separation of Berlin, Kurfürstendamm was the main shopping area of West Berlin.

The series chronicles the lives of Caterina Schöllack (Claudia Michelsen) and her three daughters Helga (Maria Ehrich), Eva (Emilia Schüle) and Monika (Sonja Gerhardt). Caterina owns a dance school, takes great pride in keeping a strict discipline and wants to marry her daughters off to wealthy men. However, nothing goes as planned. Her husband Gerd (Robert Schupp) has gone missing in WW2 and for years, Caterina has had a secret affair with Fritz Assmann (Uwe Ochsenknecht), a long-time friend of the family.

Helga gets married to West Prussian Wolfgang von Boost (August Wittgenstein) who's about to become a district attorney. However, he is secretly gay and meets other men at night time. Helga doesn't understand why Wolfgang doesn't want to get intimate with her. Wolfgang visits Dr. Jürgen Fassbender (Heino Ferch) who tries to "cure" Wolfgang of his homosexuality. Because of the pressure, Wolfgang resorts to violence and hits Helga. In turn, Helga gets the chance to become a TV star when she is booked for TV commercial where she has to play the perfect 50s housewife. When Monika sees Wolfgang at a cruising park receiving oral sex from another guy, she and Eva tell Helga about her husband's secret desire, but Helga refuses to believe them.

Eva works as a nurse at a mental hospital and Dr. Fassbender is her boss. Encouraged by her mother, she is determined to marry the much older doctor. However, Eva soon falls for Rudi Hauer (Steven Windolf), the husband of one her patients and a professional soccer player. Rudi wants to leave his wife Christa (Anne Werner) for Eva and tells her that he strives for a divorce. Christa commits suicide by jumping from a window. Eva is devastated, but then accepts Fassbender's proposal, to Rudi's horror.

Monika is the black sheep of the family. At the beginning, she returns home after she had been thrown out of a housekeeping school because of indecent behavior (she was caught dancing in the rain only in her underwear). Caterina loses no opportunity to tell Monika how much she loathes her. Monika has little self-esteem. Caterina eventually tries to set her up with Joachim Franck (Sabin Tambrea), the son of a weathly business man. Joachim, however, is up to no good. He gets drunk and rapes Monika on their first "date". Afterwards, Caterina tells Monika to pull herself together. Caterina tries to blackmail the Francks so that Joachim will marry Monika, but the Francks twist the facts and declare that Monika seduced Joachim. Monika tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a lake. She is rescued by her sisters at the last minute. Afterwards, she is given a job teaching at the dance school. Monika meets Freddy Donath (Trystan Pütter), a member of the dance school's resident band. When he takes her dancing, Monika discovers her love for rock'n'roll music – which her mother hates because she thinks it's vulgar and tasteless. Monika and Freddy take part in dancing contests and also start a secret affair. However, Joachim still pops up in her life. Joachim, who has narcissistic tendencies, is indifferent to life. He gets drunk and has a terrible car crash which leaves him with a broken knee. After recovering, he breaks with his father and wants to start a new life by becoming a novel author.

Caterina is shocked when she learns that Gerd has been back in Berlin for years without telling her. He now lives in East Berlin and has started a new family. Monika and her sisters discover that her parents "stole" the dance school from a Jewish family that were sent to a death camp in WW2. When he came back to Berlin after the war, Gerd was full of shame and couldn't return to his former life.

In the meantime, Monika finds out that she's pregnant – with Freddy's child. Urged by both Freddy and her mother, she thinks about having an abortion. During a subway ride, Caterina tells Monika that her real father is Fritz Assmann and not Gerd Schöllack. In the end, Monika decides to keep the child. The series ends with Monika leaving Berlin with Freddy.

The series was so successful that a sequel was filmed: "Ku'damm '59" takes place in 1959 and also consists of 3 parts. Another sequel, "Ku'damm '62" will premiere in 2020.

in 2017, Sonja Gerhardt was nominated for an "International Emmy" as "Best Actress" for her portrayal of Monika Schöllack.

The sequel:

June 20, 2019

Germany's "Lindenstraße" introduced Marek Zöllig played by Martin Walde in May 2016. He was the brother of regular character Nina Zöllig and was married with a child. A while later, Marek was revealed to be transsexual and gradually changed his appearance to eventually become a woman. The character is now known as "Sunny Zöllig" and is still a regular character as of today. Sunny has been in a relationship with bisexual Tanja Schildknecht for quite a while.

Here's a gallery highlighting all the important moments in Sunny's life on Lindenstraße: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/rolle-marek-zoellig-100.html

Sunny has just started her hormone treatment:

Sunny is fighting for unisex bathrooms at the show's main restaurant:

Sunny is worried about Tanja:

Sunny receives a visit from her son:

June 3, 2019

11 hours ago, Khan said:

I'm not sure about Katie and Donna, but I definitely think they de-aged Storm when they cast DeVry. No way could he and Ethan Wayne be the same age, lol.

Somehow, the first batch of actors portraying the Logan family members carried their worn out 80s looks into the mid 00s – and that's why the recasts were so glaringly different, because the new actors looked fresher and way more attractive.

Nancy Sloan (1st Katie) is 10 years older than Heather Tom, so they definitely de-aged Katie when Tom took over in 2007. Nancy Sloan's version of Katie still looked like a frumpy wallflower when she last appeared in 2004.

With Donna, it's a bit tougher because Carrie Mitchum and Jennifer Gareis are only 5 years apart. IMO, Jennifer Gareis even looked older than KKL's Brooke (and both actresses have had work done) when she first appeared in 2006.

Regarding Storm, Ethan Wayne (Storm #1) is just 6 years older than William deVry (Storm #3). However, Brian Patrick Clarke who played Storm from 1990 to 1991 was way older (almost 10 years older than Wayne).

They also slightly de-aged Stephen and Beth Logan when Patrick Duffy and Robin Riker took over in 2006 and 2008, respectively. But again, it was probably due to the more youthful appearance of the new actors compared to their predecessors that made the contrast seem so stark. That was also the case when Lesli Kay replaced Colleen Dion as Felicia Forrester. Both actresses are the same age, but Kay looked so much fresher and "up to date" whereas Dion was pale and looked tired in comparison.

May 31, 2019

RTL has apparently decided to cancel its daily soap "Freundinnen" (Girlfriends) which debuted on August 28th, 2018. Initially, RTL only ordered 159 episodes. The last new episode was shown on April 12th, 2019 – since then, they've been repeating the show from the very beginning. "Freundinnen" had several cross-overs with "Unter uns" (both shows air back-to-back): After taking a leave from UU, Milos Vukovic appeared as his UU character Paco Weigel on "Freundinnen" for a brief run at the end of 2018. Vukovic returned to UU full-time in April 2019. In episode 116 of "Freundinnen", former UU regular Stefan Bockelmann joined the contract cast as his UU character Malte Winter. Bockelmann had been a regular on UU from 2001 to 2017. Last but not least, Kai Noll briefly appeared as his UU character Rufus Sturm on "Freundinnen" in February and March 2019. Noll has been a steady cast member on UU since 2003.

Now RTL has announced that a new daily soap will take "Freundinnen's" place in the fall. The new show is called "Herz über Kopf" (a pun on the idiom "Hals über Kopf" which means "Head over Heels" – "Herz über Kopf" literally translates as "Heart over Head") and is supposed to be a mixture of a daily soap and a crime show. According to a press release, actors Mandy Neidig, Felix Maximilian, Daniel Sellier, Sarah Mangione and Tanja Tischewitsch are among the cast.

Due to its weak lead-in "Freundinnen", UU's ratings have gone down the drain as well.
Currently the repeats of "Freundinnen" have a market share between 3 and 4%.

Ratings of the past 3 days:

May 27th:

Sturm der Liebe: Total viewers 1.65m | Market share: 15.0% | Market share 14-59: n/a

Unter uns: Total viewers 0.98m | Market share: 7.3% | Market share 14-59: 9.3%

Alles was zählt: Total viewers 1.75m | Market share: 7.8% | Market share 14-59: 11.0%

GZSZ: Total viewers 2.7m | Market share: 10.4% | Market share 14-59: 18.1%

May 28th:

Sturm der Liebe: Total viewers 1.5m | Market share: 13.9% | Market share 14-59: n/a

Unter uns: Total viewers 0.92m | Market share: 6.7% | Market share 14-59: 9.1%

Alles was zählt: Total viewers 2.09m | Market share: 9.1% | Market share 14-59: 12.6%

GZSZ: Total viewers 2.89m | Market share: 10.9% | Market share 14-59: 19.0%

May 29th:

Sturm der Liebe: Total viewers 1.49m | Market share: 15.7% | Market share 14-59: n/a

Unter uns: Total viewers 0.77m | Market share: 6.6% | Market share 14-59: 8.0%

Alles was zählt: Total viewers 1.62m | Market share: 8.4% | Market share 14-59: 12.6%

GZSZ: Total viewers 2.35m | Market share: 10.7% | Market share 14-59: 19.9%

May 26, 2019

On 5/19/2019 at 8:02 PM, I Am A Swede said:

And ouch (!) for Germany! No points at all from the televoting.....

Well, that's what you get for sending a duo that even in Germany nobody cared about. It was the first time in ages that our own ESC song didn't even chart on the German Top 100.
It was also quite shady how they won the national pre-selection... the duo was only created for ESC and these girls didn't even know each other before the national final. The girls were nominated as a wildcard act in the last minute, performed last in the final, and then suspiciously won (mostly because one juror had been one of the girls' coach on The Voice of Germany).

We had so much better choices in our NF:

Of course none of our successful and established acts want to perform in ESC. However, they are always keen to appear on pre-ESC programs to promote their latest releases.
There's always a huge ESC party in Hamburg, and this year for example Sarah Connor (she's one of our most successful pop stars with a career spanning now almost 20 years) performed her latest hit:

Imagine her going to ESC... of course it would never happen.

As for the UK: As long as the broadcast still gets them good ratings (I think BBC still has 10 million people tuning in), they won't withdraw. I can't remember any country withdrawing in recent years because of bad results... countries usually only withdraw because their broadcasters can't afford participating.

BTW, the results of the ESC 2019 Final have been corrected. The jury from Belarus had been disqualified before the Grand Final because they had openly discussed their votes from the first semi-final. A substitute jury result was then read out during Saturday's final. However, these substitute results were apparently calculated in the wrong way, so they were corrected a few days later.

New results of the Grand Final:

01. The Netherlands (498)

02. Italy (472)

03. Russia (370)

04. Switzerland (364)

05. Sweden (334)

06. Norway (331)

07. North Macedonia (305)

08. Azerbaijan (302)

09. Australia (284)

10. Iceland (232)

---

11. Czech Republic (157)

12. Denmark (120)
13. Cyprus (109)

14. Malta (107)

15. Slovenia (105)

16. France (105)

17. Albania (90)

18. Serbia (89)

19. San Marino (77)

20. Estonia (76)

---

21. Greece (71)

22. Spain (54)

23. Israel (35)

24. Belarus (31)

25. Germany (24)

26. United Kingdom (11)

May 19, 2019

Congrats to our dear neighbors – well deserved win!

Full Results:

Semi Final 1

Iceland won the televote, followed by Australia and Estonia.

Czech Republic won the jury vote, followed by Greece and Australia.

With 100% televote, Poland would have qualified for the final instead of Belarus.
With 100% jury voting, Hungary would have qualified for the final instead of San Marino.

01. Australia (261) q

02. Czech Republic (242) q

03. Iceland (221) q

04. Estonia (198) q

05. Greece (185) q

06. Slovenia (167) q

07. Serbia (156) q

08. San Marino (150) q

09. Cyprus (149) q

10. Belarus (122) q

–––

11. Poland (120)

12. Hungary (97)

13. Belgium (70)

14. Georgia (62)

15. Portugal (51)

16. Montenegro (46)

17. Finland (23)

Semi Final 2

Norway won the televote, followed by the Netherlands and Switzerland.
North Macedonia won the jury vote, followed by Sweden and the Netherlands.

With 100% televote, Lithuania would have qualified for the final instead of Denmark.
With 100% jury voting, Romania and Moldova would have qualified for the final instead of Norway and Albania.

01. The Netherlands (280) q

02. North Macedonia (239) q

03. Sweden (238) q

04. Switzerland (232) q

05. Azerbaijan (224) q

06. Russia (217) q

07. Norway (210) q

08. Malta (157) q

09. Albania (96) q

10. Denmark (94) q

–––

11. Lithuania (93)

12. Moldova (85)

13. Romania (71)

14. Croatia (64)

15. Latvia (50)

16. Armenia (49)

17. Austria (21)

18. Ireland (16)

Grand Final

Norway won the televote, followed by the Netherlands and Italy.
Sweden won the jury vote, followed by North Macedonia and the Netherlands.

The juries killed Norway (15th place in the jury voting) and Iceland (14th place in the jury voting) while the televoters didn't like jury favorites North Macedonia (only 12th place in televote) and Czech Republic (only 24th place in the televote).

Germany received 0 points in the televote.
Spain received the lowest jury score with 7 points.

01. The Netherlands (492)

02. Italy (465)

03. Russia (369)

04. Switzerland (360)

05. Norway (338)

06. Sweden (332)

07. Azerbaijan (297)

08. North Macedonia (295)

09. Australia (285)

10. Iceland (234)

–––

11. Czech Republic (157)

12. Denmark (120)

13. Slovenia (105)

14. France (105)

15. Cyprus (101)

16. Malta (95)

17. Serbia (92)

18. Albania (90)

19. Estonia (86)

20. San Marino (81)

–––

21. Greece (71)

22. Spain (60)

23. Israel (47)

24. Germany (32)

25. Belarus (31)

26. United Kingdom (16)

Recap of the Grand Final:

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