Before his success with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Günther Jauch could have had a different show. That’s why he canceled.
A moment that could have changed the German television landscape: Günther Jauch decided against hosting a cult dating show. Accordingly, in 1987 he was intended to be the first presenter for the TV show “Herzblatt”. In the podcast “An Evening with Günther Jauch,” the 68-year-old showmaster reports on the surprising offer he received at the time.
He says that he even completed a test episode of the well-known dome show. But afterwards he had a bad feeling and said to himself: “No, that’s not me.” He decided against it because he didn’t want to see himself as the “whorehouse father of the nation.” He then “graciously passed the job on to Rudi Carrell.” Rudi Carrell hosted the show until 1993.
At that time, Günther Jauch was still at the beginning of his TV career, which he had started as a field reporter on the game show “Rätselflug” in 1982. Despite the tempting offer and the opportunity to make a lot of money, he declined and set other priorities. Instead, in 1987, Jauch took over the show “Na see!” on ZDF, after Thomas Gottschalk had previously called it “Na sowas!” had moderated.
This was followed by positions at “aktuellen sportstudio” from 1988 and finally at RTL from 1990, where he ran “stern TV”, among others. Günther Jauch also initially hesitated when he was asked “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” as he recently told the radio station Antenne Bayern. “Quiz had completely fallen out of the world. Nobody was interested in it anymore. It was a 60s and 70s appearance on German television and nobody actually wanted it,” he explained. But then he accepted the offer anyway. He has been the face of the German quiz classic for a quarter of a century now.