It’s the annual duel for TV ratings: “Tatort” or “Traumschiff” – which format attracts more viewers to the TV screens on Boxing Day? After the ARD crime thriller was in the lead last year, the disappointment is likely to be all the greater this time. The Christmas episode “Mord unter Misteln” with the Munich “Tatort” commissioners Batic and Leitmayr saw only 4.09 million people. This corresponds to a market share of 14.1 percent.
No other new “crime scene” had so few viewers this year. According to calculations by the industry service DWDL, it was even the weakest “Tatort” first broadcast since at least 2006. For comparison: A year ago, the case “Everything comes back” with Maria Furtwängler and Udo Lindenberg reached 6.72 million. In 2020, 7.36 million watched the Münster thriller “Summ, Summ, Summ” at Christmas, even though it was a repeat.
The winner of the quota race on Boxing Day was the ZDF “Traumschiff”. 5.71 million people (19.7 percent) watched the episode entitled “Coco Island”, which took place in the Maldives. In the episode, comedian Luke Mockridge guest-starred as a chef. Originally, the film was supposed to be broadcast as early as Christmas 2021, but was then postponed because of the rape allegations against Mockridge.
Overall, “Das Traumschiff” has lost viewers year after year since Florian Silbereisen took over as Captain Max Parger. Last year, 5.76 million people tuned in on Boxing Day, in 2020 there were 6.56 million, and on Silbereisen’s debut in 2019, “Das Traumschiff” even reached 7.49 million viewers.
ProSieben sent its moderator duo Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf into the race with a new edition of their show “The Duel Around the World”, reaching 0.84 million people. Sat.1 had the animated film “Frozen 2” in its program, which attracted 1.92 million people. RTL broadcast a “Who wants to be a millionaire? – Zockerspecial”, which 2.92 million people saw.
On New Year’s Day, public broadcasters once again have a ratings duel: while ARD is showing a new “crime scene” from Cologne, ZDF is showing “Das Traumschiff” again. The destination this time is the Bahamas.
Sources: DWDL, quota meter
