The pitfalls of live television: On Sunday, the satirical party Diepartei crashed the “ZDF- Fernsehengarten”. Members boarded the stage or jumped into a pool. The background to the demolition, according to Die Party leader Martin Sonneborn: “We bet on what would get more attention in the German media: if the Azerbaijani dictator Aliyev invades Nagorno-Karabakh or if The Party pees in the pool at the TV garden.”
The incident was not the first incident that “ Fernsehengarten” presenter Andrea Kiewel had to deal with since she took over moderation of the long-serving format in 2000.
During a performance by Roland Kaiser in 2012, a male choir could suddenly be heard bellowing the phrase “Germany sucks, you are the evidence” twice into outdoor microphones. In the same year, a group from Cologne also caused a stir. The drunken visitors rioted, insulted other guests and even set off a smoke bomb. The police moved to Lerchenberg in Mainz.
But it wasn’t just uninvited guests that caused a stir. Once it was enough to invite a comedian. Luke Mockridge made a bizarre appearance in 2019. He talked on the phone with a banana, made fart noises with his armpit, and compared the smell of old people to that of potatoes. The comedian later broke up on his own show: children had written him the gags. Andrea Kiewel intervened after four minutes, later in the show she complained about Mockridge’s “uncollegial behavior” and banned him from appearing for life.
Some prominent guests are also angry about the show. Pietro Lombardi was supposed to appear in “Fernsehgarten” in 2019, but took off his trademark hat. The reason: Possible covert advertising through a clearly visible logo. The “DSDS” winner had worn the same cap on the Lerchenberg the previous year. Lombardi canceled his appearance.
The “ZDF TV Garden” already had its very own nipple gate: In 2018, Kiwi cooled down with the help of a water hose during an appearance by Jürgen Drews at a “Mallorca Party” motto. She only realized later that she wasn’t wearing a bra under her white dress. The newspapers the next day were of course full of pictures of the little faux pas. The Cologne “Express” even asked the question: “Does the standard sink with the motto?”
In 2022, Andrea Kiewel finally irritated with statements that could suggest that she had been forced to gender by ZDF. “We as the TV garden team currently have the impression that there is a lot of positive things going on in the German singer-songwriter scene,” she said on the show, before remarking about the verbal gender asterisk: “Don’t grimace, me must!” After media excitement, ZDF made it clear that there was no gender compulsion.
