[3][4] His father Lev Konstantinovich Ernst, of German descent, was a Soviet biologist and Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

[7] In an interview with Afisha, as part of the project entitled ‘History of the Russian Media between 1989 and 2011’, Ernst said that he had met Alexander Lyubimov at an informal meeting and that the latter suggested him to try his hand in Vremya, a TV program run by the chief editorial office for children and adolescents of the Central Television of the USSR.

His colleague Yevgeny Dodolev says in his book, The Beatles of the Perestroika, that Ernst was able to try himself as a director after he had arranged that Videofilm would provide him with equipment rooms and state-of-the-art (for their time) Betacam SP video cameras for his business trips (at the time, only Vremya personnel had access to this equipment at the Ostankino Technical Center).

[8] In 1989 Anatoly Lysenko, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the youth editorial office at the Central Television and head of Vzglyad, suggested that Ernst start working on his own show.

On 3 September 1999, following the resignation of Igor Shabdurasulov, who had been at the helm of ORT since October 1998, Ernst became the TV channel's interim CEO, while maintaining his post of executive producer.

Ernst explained this name change by a discrepancy between the channel's legal status and the notion of public television.

In 2010, Ernst attempted to implement vertical integration into Russian television, a widespread approach in the United States and some European countries, which means new episodes of serials are aired once a week at a specific time.

Right after the end of the ceremony, all the content disappeared from the singer's official website, replaced with a black page featuring the following text: "channel one ignored every possible agreement and used my track without my consent.

Ernst did not provide any details on the supposed breach of contract between Zemfira and REAL Records, stating only that this had happened some five or seven years before that.

Following this, Zemfira's official representative Pavlo Shevchyuk said in an interview to Business FM that she would not sue Ernst for using her song Khochesh' (Do you Want?)

He also added that the message on the singer's official website, which had disappeared on the morning of 10 February 2014 was a means to express her discontent over the issue.

[13] On 10 February 2016, Slava Taroshchina, columnist for Novaya Gazeta, highlighted in her article on Ernst's 55th anniversary that "this time Vladimir Putin had not gone to Ostankino in person as it had happened five years earlier" and that "Katya Andreeva did not read in a blank voice the president's congratulations message for the lack thereof".

[14] On 22 December 2016, Ernst said in an exclusive interview to Gazeta.Ru that "user-generated content on the Internet refers mainly to gags and news, and only those who are able to aggregate their creative and financial resources to create a product can deal with all the system-based things.

It lasted until spring 2010, when Sinelshchikova put an end to it and moved from her upscale apartment on Povarskaya Street,[20] where the couple had resided until then, to her own mansion in prestigious area of Moscow Oblast (a federal subject of Russia).

On 21 July 2014, the Russian version of Tatler announced that "Konstantin Ernst had definitely put his young girlfriend on the list of his social events", adding that "Sofya Zaika, former employee of the Ulyana Sergeenko fashion house, readily changed funny parties at Simach and audacious photo sessions for cultural receptions and timid remarks that are hardly audible from behind the TV titan’s shoulder".

[23][24][25] A number of Russian media sources announced on 22 July 2017 that Ernst married Sofya Zaika, but there is no official confirmation of this marriage.

[31] According to the leaked Pandora Papers, in 2014 Konstantin Ernst received a loan from a state-connected bank to acquire a stake in a project that saw Moscow theaters demolished to make way for shopping malls.

Urgant is just a tool", Solovyov explained his point of view, adding that "things are not usually done this way on TV" and that "this is a declaration of war".