podcast
Linda Zervakis presented the Tagesschau, the flagship of public broadcasting, for eight years. She has been in front of the camera for ProSieben for two years. Her move met with a lot of public misunderstanding. On “Die Boss” she tells openly why she left ARD, what her biggest public test of courage was and which clothes are best not worn on talk shows.
Linda Zervakis regularly presented world events to an audience of millions. The Tagesschau made her famous. But she gave up the job, which she could certainly have done until she retired, and went to ProSieben. “Otherwise I’ll personally break down because I just realize I’m not getting anywhere here,” she tells Simone Menne in the stern podcast “Die Boss” about her end at the Tagesschau. However, the change was not easy for her. “My knees were shaking,” she says.
At ProSieben, Zervakis now moderates a weekly infotainment show alongside Matthias Opdenhövel. “What many accuse me of: your odds are bad, it doesn’t work properly and was that the right decision,” says Zervakis. “But I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to moderate the trill, for example. (…) I could never have done that under ARD.”
“From then on I was almost an adult”
In the podcast, Zervakis also talks about her parents, who came to Hamburg from Greece as guest workers. So that their children should have a better life, they worked piecework in a factory. Later they ran a kiosk in Hamburg-Harburg. When his father died, Zervakis was 14 years old. “From then on I was more or less grown up,” the 48-year-old remembers. After school or on the weekends, she and her brothers regularly helped out in the kiosk. The family didn’t have much. “I still have my nest egg. It’s just like it used to be,” says Zervakis.
In an interview with Ms. Menne, the moderator also addresses the controversy surrounding the interview with Chancellor Scholz at the “republica” last year. Zervakis was asked by the Chancellery to moderate the conference in Berlin. Topics had been discussed beforehand, but not unusual for an interview at such an event. However, the media response was critical. Scholz was spared by Zervakis. A huge shitstorm hit the moderator. How she dealt with it, why she wanted to open a pension in Greece and what clothes she never will be wearing on talk shows again, you will find out in this episode of “Die Boss”.
At “The Boss – Power is Female” top women speak among themselves: Hostess and multi-board member Simone Menne (including BMW, Deutsche Post DHL, Henkel) meets female bosses from all areas of society to talk to them about their lives and careers. “Die Boss” appears fortnightly on Wednesdays on and the des staras well as on and all common podcast platforms.
Source: Stern
