Samuel Koch (35) will reportedly be a guest at Thomas Gottschalk’s (73) last “Wetten,dass..?” edition on November 25th in Offenburg. This brings a tragic chapter in the history of the otherwise light-hearted Saturday evening show, which dates back to 1981, full circle. In 2010, Koch, supported by his father, took part in a bet and had a serious accident in front of a live audience across Europe. Now, according to a report in the “Bild” newspaper, Koch is apparently returning to the show that changed his life forever.
It was Saturday evening, December 4th, 2010, at the beginning of Advent. The first bet of the evening in the Düsseldorf exhibition hall was, as the show’s makers probably calculated, a spectacular start to the usual cheerful evening with “Wetten,dass…?” host Thomas Gottschalk and his co-host Michelle Hunziker (46). form.
Samuel Koch, a young gymnast from Neuwied, bet that he could jump over moving cars that were coming his way using jumping stilts. He skillfully did a somersault over the first car. Otto Waalkes clapped on the couch, Gottschalk and Hunziker folded their hands and took a breath. Then disaster struck: in the fourth car, Koch’s stilts were hit by the car. He hurled himself onto the roof of the car and fell like a stone to the floor of the exhibition hall.
Samuel Koch has been in a wheelchair ever since. He not only survived the accident with serious injuries. Since then, he has been a role model for everyone when it comes to moving on after a stroke of fate. Samuel Koch became a successful actor, speaker and author.
In 2011, because of the incident with Koch, Gottschalk decided to end the show that had taken him to the Olympus of presenting. In 2021 he returned again with the annual “Wetten,dass..?” shows, but now it will finally be over. On November 25th, Gottschalk will present the show for the last time.
“After both of our lives changed with the accident on ‘Wetten, dass…?’ “We meet again and again on very different occasions and are happy every time we see each other,” Gottschalk now told “Bild”. “Samuel is always in a good mood and never makes me feel like I’m somehow ‘to blame’ for his fate.”
