heute-show

Heute-show is a German conceptual adaptation of the American news satire program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and its name references ZDF's news formats heute and heute-journal as well as ARD's Tagesschau.

The show's theme tune, called 'Breakfast Briefing', was composed by Terry Devine-King.

The program is recorded every Friday around 6 pm in Studio 3 of a Cologne production company, and as of 2017 each episode cost less than 300,000 euros to produce.

During recording, pre-recorded laughter and cutaway shots from the audience warm-up are sometimes edited into the broadcast, a practice that drew criticism from Harald Schmidt in 2014 who accused the production of splicing in audience reactions to other shows' punchlines.

Correspondent Martin Sonneborn left the show in 2014 after becoming a member of the European Parliament as top candidate for the satirical party Die PARTEI.

On 27 January 2012, FDP politician Rainer Brüderle appeared as a studio guest despite his unclear dialect-influenced speech having long been a recurring joke on the show; host Oliver Welke said Brüderle had 'enriched the heute-show content-wise like no other'.

The 18 March 2011 episode featuring guest Michael Mittermeier ended abruptly 41 seconds early after repeated use of sexual innuendo around the term 'nuclear fetishism', sparking rumors of ZDF censorship reminiscent of the 1986 Chernobyl-related censorship of satirical show Scheibenwischer; producer Georg Hirschberg later confirmed it was actually a technical planning error that cut the feed too early.

On 22 October 2010, a technical glitch during transmission to the Mainz broadcasting center forced ZDF to air the literary program Die Vorleser instead and delay the heute-show, which hurt its ratings.

The episode broadcast on 6 June 2014, following a German national football team match, achieved the show's highest market share ever at 25.1% with 3.90 million viewers, and also set records in the 14-49 target demographic with 23.5% market share.

On 24 April 2020, the heute-show reached a new all-time viewership record of about 5.46 million total viewers.

In a 2013 online vote celebrating ZDF's 50th anniversary, the heute-show was voted the most popular program in the channel's history, ahead of shows like 1, 2 oder 3 and Wetten, dass..?

In October 2014, the German Bundestag denied the heute-show a filming permit, arguing the show did not constitute 'political-parliamentary reporting'; after the decision made national news, the show was granted a day accreditation on 5 November 2014 and allowed to film again.

On 1 May 2020, a heute-show camera team including cabaret performer Abdelkarim was attacked by more than a dozen masked assailants linked to the left-wing spectrum at a demonstration against coronavirus measures; six people including three security staff were injured, and the attackers later admitted in court they had mistaken the crew for right-wing figures.

In February 2015, the show edited a quote from Left Party politician Marlena Schiewer out of context, making her appear to be a former NPD and current AfD voter; after public criticism, host Oliver Welke apologized to her personally by phone and again on air, this time showing her full statement in context.

After a satirical 2018 segment mocking Easter chocolate bunnies with religious imagery, including a parody of The Last Supper with Jesus replaced by the Easter bunny, the Mainz public prosecutor's office received numerous criminal complaints against host Oliver Welke but decided not to open an investigation.