Wetten Dass

State-run German TV features a popular program which has been around for over thirty years....Wetten Dass.  The theme of this live two-to-three hour show....is family entertainment.  You have around six to eight stars (most internationally known), a singer or group, and then these five "stunts".  The weight of the show is primarily on these "stunts".

Typically, these stunts are used as bets for the guests and everyone is smiling as they bet the kid can add forty-four columns of numbers and announce a solution in twelve seconds.  Or you have the guy who takes forty beer cannisters and builds this standing column that he climbs in two minutes.  Or you have a woman who can recognize the knee caps of her women's volleyball group and pronounce each person by their kneecap.  The bet is always a secondary part of this whole act.

Last night, the boys at Wetten Dass had accepted a more dangerous stunt.  This young German guy had offered to jump over five oncoming cars in the building....with spring-powered stilts.   He actually succeeded with the first jump....avoided the second opportunity....and then came the third jump which went terribly wrong.  He basically crashed down onto the ground (with a helmet on)....and just laid there.   A pretty dramatic moment.

Medics were on the scene....quickly going into action....and they moved him to the local hospital.

The thing about Wetten Dass....which is the biggest sales item of the show....it's all live.  So the host of the show.....Thomas Gottschalk....had to make some split second decisions.  They carried the moment of medical personnel on the scene for a couple of minutes and then cut away.  Then Gottschalk made the decision to run some clips of music for around ten to fifteen minutes.  Finally, he said enough and stopped the show entirely.  Since he'd been running the show in the mid-80s....it'd never been stopped like this.

Based on news from Germany....this guy is injured but little else is being said.  I'm guessing at least a concussion and maybe some internal injuries.

Since 1993....I've probably watched around sixty of these shows.  They run around eight to nine of these shows per year.  They are highly organized and it'd shock folks because Gottshalk will bring out people who typically never do shows (Micheal Jackson was a great example).  But over the years that I've watched....there were five or six stunts per year that I regarded as highly dangerous and I felt it was stupid to do this with live TV.

I'm guessing some manager with the state-run TV empire will sit down over the next month with Gottshalk and his team....and discuss the idea of no more thrilling stunts.  You might still see dog tricks and such....but the deadly stunt period is now finished.  The fact that they were successful for thirty years doing things like this.....was simply luck.