In 2005 he was awarded the Communicator Prize by the DFG and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Foundation for German Scholarship) for his television appearances and publications.

To honor his work on making scientific findings understandable to the broad public, the Naturforschende Gesellschaft zu Emden (nature research society) awarded him an honorary membership on 15 March 2011.

In "Lesch & Co." and "Denker des Abendlandes" (thinkers of the occident), he converses with the philosophy professor Wilhelm Vossenkuhl about philosophical topics.

Alpha bis Omega deals with contradiction and consistency of religion and natural science, through conversations between Lesch and the Catholic theologist Thomas Schwartz.

From April to the end of 2007, Lesch moderated the weekly 5-minute program sci_xpert for this channel, which dealt with viewer questions, which mostly had to do with feasibility of science fiction concepts (such as "How realistic are the huge spaceships from Independence Day?

At the start of the "International Year of Astronomy 2009", Lesch moderated in ZDF the 2½ hour special "How Light Was Born: the Long Night with Harald Lesch", in which he, between short documentary films, led conversations with the cabaret artist and hobby-philosopher Christoph Süß, the physics professor Günther Hasinger, and the theology professor Thomas Schwartz.