Around 30 years after the format went on air, the weekend edition of “Explosiv” is being discontinued and removed from the program. The station announced this to its employees on Tuesday afternoon. The final edition of “Explosiv Weekend” is scheduled to air on December 13th.
Since the performance of the format has unfortunately recently fallen short of expectations, we have decided with a heavy heart to discontinue the weekend edition, explained Martin Gradl, co-managing director of RTL News, to the industry magazine “DWDL.de”. “Together with the team, in the future we will concentrate entirely on the core brand ‘Explosiv’ and the development of strong stories for the editions from Monday to Friday at 6 p.m.”
Most recently, the format had fewer than 700,000 viewers on Saturday. This corresponds to a market share of just six percent in the advertising-relevant target group of 14 to 49 year olds – values that are significantly below the station average. Recently, the station had apparently lost hope of being able to turn things around. The celebrity magazine “Gala”, which runs immediately afterwards, will remain in the program.
There should be no operational dismissals in connection with the discontinuation of “Explosiv Weekend”. The affected employees will be employed in the future for the “Explosiv” magazine, which will continue to be published, or for other formats. In the future, the editorial focus will be on the weekday edition.
In the new year, repeats of court shows will be shown in the slot on Saturday afternoons at 4:45 p.m. These have been enjoying great popularity again for some time now.
Sources: RTL, “DWDL.de”
The star belongs to Gruner Jahr. The publisher belongs to RTL Deutschland.
