Wetten, dass..? (
German for
"Want to Bet?" or the informal
"Wanna Bet?") is a German language game and entertainment television series. It is one of the most successful Saturday
television shows in
Europe.
The shows are broadcast live six to seven times a year from different cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There have also been six open-air summer shows, broadcast from Xanten, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Berlin, and Aspendos. Each of the shows, which are shown without commercial interruption, are usually scheduled to last for about two hours, but it is not uncommon for a show to run as much as 45 minutes longer.
History
On 14 February 1981, the
German channel
ZDF broadcast the first episode in cooperation with the
Austrian broadcaster
ORF and the
Swiss channel
SF DRS. The inventor of the show,
Frank Elstner, hosted the show until its 39th episode in 1987.
Wetten, dass..? has since been hosted by
entertainer Thomas Gottschalk, except during a brief interval from 1992 to 1993, when nine episodes were presented by
Wolfgang Lippert. Gottschalk hosted his 100th episode of the show on 27 March 2004. Since late 2009,
Michelle Hunziker has assisted Gottschalk in hosting the show.
Concept
The core
gimmick of the show is the
bets: ordinary people offer to perform some unusual (often bizarre) and very difficult task. Some examples, all of which were performed successfully, include:
Lighting a pocket lighter using an excavator's shovel (19 February 1983).
Assembling a V8 engine from parts and make it run within 9 minutes (2 November 1991)
13 swimmers towing a 312 tonne ship over a distance of 25 meters (7 October 1995)
Recognising 5 of 6 (out of a total of 75) species of birds blindfolded by feeling a single feather (9 November 2002).
A Chinese martial artist pushing a car with a spear, the tip of which resting on his throat
A nine-year-old boy from Vienna computing the shortest bus and railcar routes throughout the city from memory
A blindfolded farmer recognizing his cows by the sound they made while chewing apples
The other major attraction of the show is the top-ranking celebrity guests, with considerable screen time given to the host greeting and chatting with them. Each of the guests must bet on the outcome of one of the performances and offer a wager, in recent years usually a humorous or mildly humiliating, originally more charitable, activity to be carried out if they lose. However, until 1987, each of the celebrities bet on all the performances and the most accurate one was selected to be that show's Wettkönig ("bet king"). Ever since, one of the people performing the task is selected by a telephone vote. Celebrities that have appeared on the show include a vast range of personalities, with repeated guests including the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Naomi Campbell, Michael Douglas,Michael Jackson, Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham, Hugh Grant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Claudia Schiffer, Heidi Klum, Bill Gates, Karl Lagerfeld, Mikhail Gorbachev and Gerhard Schröder.
Additionally, until 2001, members of the audience could offer bets against the host to find a certain number of unusual persons (e.g. 10 ladies over the age of 65 driving motorbikes). One of these was selected at the beginning of the show and had to be fulfilled by its end. Now, the host bets against the entire city where the show is held.
Between the bets and the celebrity smalltalk, there are musical performances by top-ranking artists like Kiss, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Shakira, Britney Spears, Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John, Joe Cocker, Lady Gaga, Luciano Pavarotti, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Joshua-James Perry, Leona Lewis, Cher and Tina Turner.
Other Versions
In the
Netherlands, a version was broadcast between 1984 and 1999 under the name
Wedden, dat..? by the
AVRO and (from the early nineties)
RTL4. The Dutch shows were hosted by
Jos Brink until 1993, after which
Rolf Wouters took over.
Reinout Oerlemans presented the show for one season in 1999.
Wetten, dass ...? inspired the British series You Bet!. It was produced by London Weekend Television and was broadcast on ITV from 1988 to 1997. The hosts were Bruce Forsyth (1988–1990), Matthew Kelly (1991–1995), and Darren Day (1996–1997).
In October 2004, Wetten, dass ...? also started in the Chinese television under the title Wanna Challenge (as gambling is illegal in China). It is shown once a week and reaches 60 million viewers each episode.
In early 2000s, a Slovenian version of Wetten, dass ...? started weekly on POP tv under the title Super Pop hosted by Stojan Auer. There were initiations of close production connections with the original Wetten, dass ...?, but the show was canceled because of high production costs before any further common productions were made.
The show was also broadcast with great success in Italy by Rai Uno from 1991 to 1996 (and then in 1999, 2001, and 2003) with the title Scommettiamo che...?. In 2008 it was taken up again by Rai Due.
In 2005 and 2006, a Polish version was broadcast under the name Załóż się.
In 2006, ABC signed with reality producer Phil Gurin of The Gurin Company to develop an American version of the show. It is set to be broadcast in July 2008, hosted by British duo Ant & Dec. This is not the first time the show has been produced for American audiences; in 1993, CBS broadcast a pilot called Wanna Bet?, hosted by Mark McEwen, which was not picked up as a full series.
There are also plans to show Wetten, dass ...? in India, Northern Africa, and Middle East
Additional information
There has been an instance where
Frank Elstner lost a private bet himself; he had bet with his family that his colleague
Kurt Felix would never fool him. (Kurt Felix ran a show similar to
Candid Camera, called
Verstehen Sie Spaß? ("Can You Take A Joke?"). On the 29th show (21 September 1985), after an outdoor challenge which involved painting the
ZDF logo onto the roof of a car with a paintbrush fixed to a helicopter's skid, the pilot was invited along with the guests for a drink of champagne. But the contents of the bottle turned out to be pure vinegar, as Elstner discovered when he was the first to take a sample, and the red-haired and bearded pilot revealed himself to the laughing audience as Kurt Felix in disguise.
In a special on German TV, Elstner said, Wetten, dass..? had the chance to have Pope John Paul II on the show, but only via video link, not direct in person. Elstner refused, because this could be precedent for future celebrities and famous people to come on the show via video link and not be in personal on the television set. Elstner regretted the once-in-a-lifetime chance to have the pope on his show and said it was the greatest mistake of his career.
In the 25th show on 15 December 1984, environmental activists ran in front of the cameras with a banner that read "Nicht wetten Donauauen retten" ("Don't bet save the Danube mead"). When they were pulled out of the way by the show's security, Frank Elstner commanded, that no one is to be thrown out of his show. He let the activists tell their request and they left the show peacefully. The banner was for the then Austrian chancellor
Fred Sinowatz, who was guest in this show.
In the 48th show on 3 September 1988, an editor of the German satirical magazine Titanic, Bernd Fritz, sneaked into the show as a contestant under the pseudonym Thomas Rautenberg. The true Thomas Rautenberg, a graphic artist from Munich, offered his bet to Wetten, dass..?, to see how the ZDF would react. He claimed to recognize the color of crayons by tasting them. Bernd Fritz took the bet to the show and won the bet. However he admitted he was cheating and the solution of how he did it could be read in the next issue of Titanic. Gottschalk then told the audience, that he would read the magazine, and tell the trick in the next show, so that the magazine wouldn't get the publicity from this stunt. It was later explained, that the blacked ski goggles, that contestants wear if they need their vision removed for the bet, were adjusted by Fritz so he could peek through a gap along his nose to see the color of the crayon. The showmaster tested the visibility through the goggles by faking punches against Fritz eyes and seeing if he would try to dodge them, but after the test it seemed as if Fritz adjusted the goggles to a more comfortable position before he attempted the bet. Since then, swimming goggles with a rubber sealing that sucks to the skin are used.
In the 102nd show on 8 December 1996, a live bet at the Russian space station Mir was planned to take place. The cosmonauts wanted to decorate a Christmas tree in zero gravity in two minutes. Because of technical problems, the station couldn't be contacted during the show.
Notes
See also
Wanna Bet?
You Bet!
Wedden Dat?
External links
Official website (German)
Category:1981 television series debuts
Category:German game shows
Category:ZDF television series
