New show: Stefan Raab and Bully lose to a dummy

TV presenter Stefan Raab suffered a defeat in the first edition of his new Saturday evening show. Together with his colleague Michael “Bully” Herbig (“LOL”), the “Raabinator” lost to the Bundeswehr doctor Marc from Berlin at the premiere of his show “Stefan and Bully against someone Schnulli” (RTL). After a battle of nerves, the 35-year-old ultimately went home with 250,000 euros in prize money. The doctor wants to marry his fiancée soon and use the money for that, as he said.

The decision in the hour-long show was made shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Sunday night. The three participants – Raab, Bully and the candidate – had to compete in small games. Raab and Bully competed as a team. Sometimes it was about estimating the height of celebrities, sometimes they had to throw Christmas trees into a moving truck. In the end, Raab cursed and narrowly missed the necessary points when throwing Frisbees at the target. Marc won the game by a tiny margin – and with it the show.

A lot was reminiscent of the earlier show “Schlag den Raab”, which once ran on RTL competitor ProSieben. That was just for the length. “Schlag den Raab” was notorious for his duels deep into the night. In November 2014, Raab only admitted defeat there at 2:23 a.m.

Can the “Cat of Sülz” still do it?

The election of candidates was carried out in a similar way. Remember: Whoever competed in “Schlag den Raab” was once staged as if the host had to beat a challenger with almost supernatural abilities. It felt like extreme athletes with Nobel Prize IQs were always competing against Raab. When the “Cat of Sülz” (appreciation from commentator Frank “Buschi” Buschmann) defeated the opponents, it naturally seemed all the more heroic.

Candidate Marc also fell into this superhero category. He explained that he studied medicine at the Charité, won judo championships and completed the Berlin Marathon last year. His fiancée said the sentence unironically: “I just noticed that he always knows almost everything.” As a viewer, you were just waiting for the hint that the 35-year-old is also able to permanently green deserts and blindly rescue cats from trees.

Raab was also in “Beat Raab” mode. He complained and questioned the rules, as we once knew from the ProSieben show. In his ambition, he sometimes even seemed to forget that he was forming a team with Bully. Moderator Elton admitted that it was difficult to “keep track of things here”.

An example of this was the first game, in which the opponents had to blow feathers out of a glass bowl. Even before the start, Raab complained that his performance could be counteracted by the influence of air conditioning in the studio. Elton warned: “Stefan, just blow and don’t think of any strange things now.” Given the lengthy discussion, Bully Herbig asked if he could start. Candidate Marc endured the spectacle stoically. At the end of the game, Raab was so over-motivated that his bowl fell to the ground and shattered.

“Buschi” taunts Raab

Apart from the first few games, candidate Marc soon won victory after victory. Also in a quiz that was initially scored for Raab and Herbig. But the notary intervened and objected to the valuation. Raab seemed annoyed.

Above all, the question was whether Raab is still at the same level as back then, almost exactly nine years after the last “Schlag den Raab” episode on December 19, 2015. Commentator Buschmann took exactly this line – and was at times astonished by the performance of the former butcher’s apprentice from Cologne-Sülz.

When the challenge was to sink a bowling ball into a hole, Raab made a miserable attempt. “How bad was that?” Buschmann exclaimed. “What’s wrong with Stefan Raab? Has he gotten old?” Raab reacted promptly: “I’ll put it this way: I think the Bushi is talking shit again,” he shot back.

But the problems and taunts ran through the show. “Raab has generally posed a few riddles so far this evening,” explained Buschmann. The commentator also said he noticed that the 58-year-old seemed a bit “lost”. “That’s amazing. Is that the new Stefan Raab?” he asked ambiguously.

It continues in the spring

The background: There is a long screen break behind Raab. In 2015 he largely withdrew from the public eye – after one last “Schlag den Raab”. He only returned in mid-September – now for RTL. On the streaming service RTL+ he is again hosting a weekly show (“You won’t win a million here with Stefan Raab”), some of which are very reminiscent of his earlier format “TV total”. “Stefan and Bully versus someone Schnulli” is his first big new Saturday evening show after the comeback – and also very inspired by old times.

Only at the end did Raab make up ground again by delaying candidate Marc’s seemingly certain victory with extremely good Frisbee throws. Buschmann stated almost conciliatoryly: “Is he still the same? Yes! A madman.”

There will be another edition of the show in the spring.