Last Saturday, a storm prevented the live broadcast of “Schlagerbooom”. A fiasco for which other TV productions have made provisions, as ZDF t-online reveals.
A soaking wet Florian Silbereisen in a dark green rain cape and yellow and white polka dot rubber boots stood on stage in Kitzbühel on Saturday, June 8th. The host had certainly imagined the open-air edition of his “Schlagerbooom” differently: However, a storm disrupted the original show plans. The 42-year-old did not let the situation spoil his good mood: “The atmosphere in the stadium was sensational despite the rain – everyone celebrated and sang along until the end shortly before midnight,” he happily told “Bild” afterwards.
But the TV audience did not get to see the atmosphere that Silbereisen raved about. Although the show was able to take place with performances by Andrea Berg, Michelle and Andy Borg, a compilation of the dress rehearsal from the previous day was shown on the TV screens. Those responsible had developed this emergency plan in advance. Considerations like these are not foreign to the team from the “ZDF-Fernsehgarten” – because the outdoor production area had to be cleared during a live recording.
“The 'ZDF-Fernsehgarten' also has emergency plans that are particularly effective in the event of thunderstorms,” ​​explains the broadcaster t-online. The live show is repeatedly confronted with “a wide variety of weather conditions”: In the past, presenter Andrea Kiewel has often had to lead the show armed with an umbrella. A little rain cannot harm the production, but in July 2019 a thunderstorm endangered the safety of everyone present.
At that time, the weather conditions over Mainz's Lerchenberg became increasingly worse as the broadcast progressed. The sky darkened and umbrellas were opened in the audience. A short time later, the “ZDF-Fernsehgarten” had to be evacuated in front of the cameras. “The show was then continued in a building on the ZDF premises – a special situation for everyone involved,” remembers Elisa Schultz from the Communications Department.
There are recordings of the incident on YouTube. In them, you can see Andrea Kiewel being interrupted by the director in the middle of her presentation. “Dear Kiwi, I'm sorry to have to call you. We're forced to stop for now for safety reasons,” was the announcement from off-screen. The 59-year-old knew immediately what to do. She not only explained the current situation to the TV viewers, but also gave instructions to the fans on site: “Because the safety of our live viewers is important to us, everyone get to a dry place now. We practice this before every broadcast. You know how it works.”
While the audience vacated the outdoor area, Andrea Kiewel went with her guests, such as Mickie Krause, Mia Julia and Jürgen Milski, into the so-called “emergency studio”. “We're obviously going to keep broadcasting. This is a kind of thunderstorm variant,” she explained to the celebrities. On the way to the ZDF building, she conducted her usual professional interviews with the musicians and wanted to know how often their performances had had to be cancelled due to the weather.
In less than three minutes, Andrea Kiewel and the pop stars present had arrived in the indoor studio. The rest of the show continued there. “We draw on many years of experience and can take a variety of measures to make the guests and viewers' stay on site as pleasant and, above all, safe as possible,” reveals Elisa Schultz from ZDF.
