TV: A year of Raab-comeback: How good is “King Lustig”?

A year ago he came back from another universe: Stefan Raab, the great absent from German television for years, staged his comeback as a return from Olympus. About the longest staircase in German TV history he went down to his disciples, who had gathered in a Multifunctional Hall in Düsseldorf – and the audience cheered as if a Messiah came down.

And today? Raab is certainly not too close if you say that he now looks much more earthly. Even if he is doing typical Raab things again. On Instagram, he has scattered cryptic clues in the past few days, as puzzling as before his comeback.

The resolution was then comparatively banal. Next Tuesday, RTL will show “The Stefan Raab Show”, but only as a 15-minute appetizer. What will follow was initially unclear. It seems that even the puzzles and murmur around his own myth have now had something ritualized.

On Sunday, Raab’s TV return, a highlight of the past television year, marks the first time. After almost ten years of television break, he had shown himself to an audience of millions on September 14, 2024 and – the reason for this also remained a bit puzzling – fought again against the former boxing world champion Regina Halmich. Then he announced sweaty, but cheerfully: “I thought about: I’ll do shows again”.

If you try to draw a conclusion from Raab’s second screen career from Raab’s first year, you get different answers to questions – depending on who you ask.

Hence a few facts first: his weekly RTL show (“You don’t win the million at Stefan Raab”) has ended in its original form because the odds were too weak. It remains to be seen what the new show project brings.

The preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest, Raab – once revered as an ESC guru – actually breathed new life, but then only ended up in 15th place with his protégés.

His Saturday evening show “Stefan and Bully against some Schnulli” is reminiscent of old “Schlag” times, but the chronic ambitious Raab stuck a defeat in the first edition and had to listen to the question of commentator Frank Buschmann whether he had grown old. All the formats at his new house broadcaster RTL reminded of his show ideas from old TV days at ProSieben.

At RTL you give yourself optimistic and convinced of Raab. “Many tried to get Stefan Raab back in front of the camera-we succeeded, we are still very happy about that,” said a spokesman for the German press agency. Raab achieved strong ranges. “The ESC preliminary decision was the most successful in two decades. And” You don’t win the million “was the most successful streaming-only show format of the year and not only generated many subscriptions, but also opened up new target groups for us.” Now you are looking forward to your retired weekly show.

Self -overestimation or expectation pressure?

Meanwhile, critics go to court with the “Raabinator”. For example, the pop culture expert Marcus S. Kleiner, Professor of Media Science at the SRH University of Applied Sciences Berlin.

Raab was a role model in many things, he says – he really shaped television. “Now, however, he has become a role model for how you shouldn’t handle your career,” says Professor Kleiner. Raab acts on him as if he is still quoting himself in his new shows. He thinks he is “creative exhausted,” says Kleiner. “What he did last year has often been pre -fermented.”

It is interesting that Raab is a show professional. “Therefore, he should have known that at some point you have exceeded a certain point in fame and recognition – and then no longer get out,” says Kleiner. “Taylor Swift is the biggest pop star on Earth – but she can never be the biggest pop star on the moon.” In the past, Raab also made fun of people who tried to put another one again. “They couldn’t let go,” says Kleiner.

When will the next act come?

The question is whether you still have to “put it on” – or whether Raab is simply overloaded with expectations that he drove into immeasurable thanks to his pompous return.

Raab works with show elements that were decisive for his image, explains Joan Kristin Bleicher from the Institute for Media and Communication at the University of Hamburg. They also shaped the expectations of the audience. “Thus, the transfer to new transmitters and format constellations is problematic,” she says. In a contribution to the over-media portal, media journalist Alexander Krei pointed out that, from the perspective of station managers, there were good reasons to use a “nostal glout in their programs”. There are successful examples.

In any case, Raab will surely try to go a few steps. Shortly after he got down the sky staircase a year ago, RTL explained that an exclusive contract was concluded – for five years.