2024-07-20 11:25:58
Heidi Klum achieved strong ratings with this year’s GNTM season. But these were accompanied by a lot of hate. There were numerous complaints.
Heidi Klum and ProSieben had a success with this year’s “Germany’s Next Top Model” season. For the first time, men were allowed to take part in the model casting show. The new concept seemed to get many viewers to tune in, and the ratings were impressive. GNTM also became a big topic on the internet, and was said to have been commented on much more than a year before. However, this also meant that the proportion of hate messages rose sharply.
As ProSieben reported in response to a request from industry service “Dwdl.de”, there were more than 285,000 comments on the show over the course of the season, 27 percent more than in 2023. Many of them are said to have been very problematic. The station’s social media team had to hide or delete 40,000 comments.
The quality of social media hate is said to have changed. There were calls for murder with Nazi references, many of the hate messages were directed against the male GNTM candidates and some were criminally relevant. A station spokeswoman confirmed that 40 comments were even reported to the public prosecutor’s office. In 2023, this consequence was drawn for just one GNTM comment.
According to “Dwdl.de”, the production company RedSeven Entertainment explains that while “Germany’s Next Top Model” polarizes like other major formats, homophobia and hatred have increased significantly in 2024. The mood on social media was “vastly different” than in the past. “Unfortunately, derogatory comments are now commonplace on social media – but this amount of hate comments has reached an absurd level,” company spokeswoman Stefanie Rupp-Menedetter is quoted as saying.
The media group therefore has “a special task and that is precisely why we actively manage these accounts and report criminal comments.”