In 1997, he switched to a public television channel again, this time to ZDF (as an independent freelancer) where he was a host for the weekly sports review das aktuelle sportstudio (until 2006) and a number of football games played by the German national team.

He served as main host for all games broadcast by ZDF during the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany in front of a large live audience in Berlin, for which he received a Deutscher Fernsehpreis award (comparable to an Emmy).

In addition to this, he was master of ceremonies for several special show programs on ZDF such as yearly reviews of the people and stories making news in the past twelve months around Christmas.

After each cook has finished his or her dish Kerner and the others are tasting and informally judging it, before some people in the audience also receive a sample of it.

Kerner married Britta Becker, a former field hockey World Cup and Olympic medalist for Germany in April 1996.