08.10.2021, Sachsen, Leipzig: Die Moderatoren Kim Fisher und Sebastian Fitzek sitzen in der Kulisse der Talkshow "Riverboat". Die Sendung wird künftig im wöchentlichen Wechsel vom MDR und vom RBB produziert. Fitzek wird zusammen mit Kim Fisher die Berliner Ausgabe moderieren, in Leipzig bleiben Fisher und Kachelmann noch ein Jahr weiter an Deck. Bislang war das "Riverboat" eine reine MDR-Sendung. Foto: Jan Woitas/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++

Has anyone ever given up being a talk show host faster? Sebastian Fitzek will leave the “Riverboat Berlin” after almost a year. His last moderation with Kim Fisher will take place on August 26th together with Kim Fisher in the third programs of RBB and MDR. Fisher stays on board.

According to an RBB announcement, Fitzek justified his step as follows: “I would have liked to have continued for much longer, I have rarely enjoyed a creative task as much as Riverboat Berlin. But new book projects require writing exams lasting several months, which unfortunately has to do with regular moderation cannot be reconciled.” In the course of his acknowledgments, Fitzek singled out Kim Fisher in particular. “I would particularly like to thank the person who lives and breathes the show like no other: the wonderful Kim Fisher, with whom I have become friends thanks to the great collaboration. I remain loyal to the show as a viewer and, should I be invited, of course also as a guest.” The RBB found no words of thanks or regret.

Fisher and Fitzek started the “Riverboat Berlin” together on October 15, 2021, which then alternated every 14 days with the “Riverboat Leipzig” – moderated by Kim Fisher and Jörg Kachelmann – and thus broadcast weekly in the programs of RBB and MDR became and will. Anyone who has experienced the crime writer Fitzek as the moderator of the entertainment talk will not particularly regret his departure. Almost stiff-necked, not very extroverted and not really interested in the guests, that was a class difference from the “talk show animal” Kim Fisher.

The RBB, notoriously weak in this television format, can consider whether the cooperation with the MDR was to its benefit. In the RBB broadcasting area of ​​Brandenburg, viewers prefer to tune in to MDR rather than RBB when the “Riverboat” is on. In the entire RBB area, the quotas were sometimes similar to the dead fish in the Oder.

In the RBB announcement, the “Riverboat” is celebrated as the “most successful talk show in the East”. That is correct and the statement becomes even more correct when it is mentioned that the success is a success of the “Riverboat Leipzig”. Kim Fisher is the face of the talk show, if you will, the talk face of the East.

On September 9th she will moderate the “Riverboat Berlin” alone. Will she get a new partner? The RBB is still pondering. If so, it must be a “Berlin face”. Should be easy to find, Berlin is the capital of everything.

Sebastian Fitzek will have returned to his desk long ago. He decided to make big money as a crime writer. His publisher will be happy.