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On December 2014, the show will grace the screen for one last time as TV producers decided to pull the plug of the show. Perhaps it has something to do with the plummeting rating of the show, "Wetten, dass..?" ("Wanna Bet?").
Back in the 80’s, it was one of the most popular show across Europe, but time has catch up with the TV show as ZDF decided to pull the plug on it. The concept of the show is about ordinary people performing often bizarre tricks and stunts, while celebrity guests sponsor them –sometimes the celebrities have to perform mildly humiliating acts if the person/persons they sponsor lose.
Since the 1980s, the show featured a lot of stunts, thus, it become one of the most favorite show in Europe. One episode features a dog that can identify 77 toys named by its owner.
Then there was this candidate that changed a car tyre as he was driving. The Berlin police squad even show their talent, wherein they broke a world record by forming a moving pyramid with 84 officers travelling on nine bikes over 100 metres (328 feet).
Needless to say, the show becomes the reason why Germans was glued to their sofas on Saturday nights, with viewers peaking at over 23 million in the mid-80s. Some stars takes advantage of the appeal of the show by promoting their latest album or movie, from Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber to Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Dropping ratings
But times are changing as the rise of cheaper-to-produce reality shows gives it a rival -- audience figures drop to an all-time low of 5.85 million in February. Programme makers thought that they don’t need to spend at least €2 million per show to capture audience anymore.
Sometimes, critics claimed that the host Markus Lanz failed to replicate the small-screen magic of his predecessors, curly-haired Thomas Gottschalk and the show's founder, Frank Elstner. Stars of the show got irritated by the uniquely German take on family entertainment.
On social media, fans reacted to the show’s would-be demise was a mix of nostalgic farewells and "Schadenfreude", the gleeful pleasure at another's misfortune. One of the tweets, read: "Rest in peace," while one viewer wrote that "finally the badly wounded deer is being put out of its misery".
What started the demise of the show?
Somehow, the end of the show started when an accident happened on the show, wherein viewers saw a young man paralyzed in 2010. The viewers were all shocked in horror as the accident takes place in the live show. Samuel Koch, then 23, was wearing spring-loaded stilts while trying to jump over five moving cars, but an accident had occurred, which leaves him paralyzed for the rest of his life.
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