Harald Schmidt (TV series)

According to the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Schmidt was in contact with NDR director Jobst Plog after he had backed out of Sat.1.

Nevertheless, they did not start seriously negotiating the contract until the Harald Schmidt Show follow-up Anke Late Night, broadcast by Sat.1, was dropped.

Jobst Plog said that initially the contract with Harald Schmidt (at a cost of €9.7 million per year) would run until July 2006.

ARD announced that they planned to finance Harald Schmidt by cutting the amount that they spent on television rights for football matches.

By no longer broadcasting UEFA Cup matches, ARD would have the money which it needs to finance Harald Schmidt.

The program was initially aired around 11 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays by Das Erste, one of Germany's public broadcast stations.

The Wednesday night time slot was given to Frank Plasberg and his talk show Hart aber fair.

The introduction of this artificial "commercial break" was a reaction to criticism from different directions claiming that the show was rather lengthy without interruption.

Whereas, before, Harald Schmidt had often been compared to David Letterman, critics are now drawing comparisons to Jon Stewart whose The Daily Show deals with the latest events and the media in the United States.

When Caroline Korneli, moderator of Fritz radio station, was a guest on the show, she asked about the change of concept.