Ruck Zuck is the German version of the short-lived U.S. game show Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.
Like its American counterpart, the series was packaged by Reg Grundy's Worldwide television empire.
Over time, the show had four hosts: Werner Schulze-Erdel (1988–1991), Jochen Bendel (1991–2000, 2004–2005), Matthias Euler-Rolle (2005) and Oliver Geissen (2016–2018), while Désirée Nosbusch hosted a short-lived kids version of Ruck Zuck on Tele 5 called Kinder Ruck Zuck in 1992.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, and then goes on to play the bonus round for the big money.
In the last round, the team must say ALL four words that the captain said to win four times the money for a maximum total of DM4,800 (DM2,400 in 1997, €1,200 in 2004, €2,400 as of 2016).
The main difference was that in the bonus round, the designated captain wore headphones while each of his or her teammates gave one word that fit the category, and the captain then had to guess all four words in 15 seconds to win the trip for the team.
On March 6, 2013, in conjunction with the anniversary of the channel called 20 Jahre RTL II (20 Years of RTL II) Ruck Zuck was revived as a one-time special with former host Jochen Bendel returning.