Schlag den Raab

Concept

At the beginning of an episode five possible candidates (usually four men and one woman) are introduced to the audience. Each candidate represents him- or herself in a short video clip of one minute (three minutes before the 45th episode). The TV audience then determines the person to battle Raab by televoting. Each episode features one contestant battling against Stefan Raab in up to fifteen games for varying amounts of money, €500,000 being the lowest. Each episode consecutively won by Raab adds €500,000 to the jackpot, e.g. the prize money in an episode following three consecutive Raab victories would sum up to €2 million.

The games have included sports contests such as biathlon, go-karting, badminton and ice hockey, puzzles, quizzes and various other challenges. Raab and his opponent compete in a maximum of 15 games. The first game awards one point, the second two points and up to fifteen points for the fifteenth game. The show ends when Raab or his opponent gains more than 60 of the possible 120 points. Therefore, the earliest point to win an episode is after completion of the eleventh game. Furthermore, it is possible to win an episode even though one has actually won less games than the opponent, e.g. if one wins just the last five games (11+12+13+14+15=65) while the opponent wins the first ten (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55). Should Raab and his opponent have each scored 60 points after the fifteenth game, a tiebreaker determines the winner.

Six episodes of Schlag den Raab are broadcast each year, three in the first half of the year and another three in the second half of the year. The last episode was aired on 19 December 2015. For this last episode, each of 15 contestants faced Raab in one game. Each contestant who beat Raab received €100,000 from the €1.5 million prize fund and moved on to a final game. For the final game, all of the contestants who had beaten Raab played against each other for the remaining money. Six contestants beat Raab in their games, so that the winner of the final game received an additional €900,000, or a total of €1 million.

History

As the show is broadcast live and the games are of different duration, a single episode generally has no fixed time limit. It regularly runs for four or more hours. The very first episode ended just after midnight at 00:01 after a runtime of three hours and 46 minutes and was therefore the shortest episode. The 49th and longest episode ended at 02:23, which equals a runtime of six hours and eight minutes.

Raab has won the contest 36 out of 52 times. He was first defeated in the third episode, when contestant Matthias Göbel won €1.5 million. The highest amount won by a single contestant so far was €3.5 million (Bernd Stadelmann on 15 December 2012). On three occasions an episode ended after just eleven games – each time Raab being the winner. The fastest candidate to beat Raab was Deaon Maxwell (episode 27) after 12 games. Two candidates, one female and one male, have been defeated without scoring a single point. Until 25 April 2015 no woman had defeated Raab. All candidates except Jan May (episode 12) have been younger than Raab. On 1 November 2014 the episode had to be cancelled for the first time in the history of the show, as Raab was suffering from a severe cold. That episode eventually aired a fortnight later, on 15 November 2014.

The show continues to be highly successful as each episode is usually watched by around three million people in Germany, reaching a market share of around 20% in the advert-relevant target group.

Awards

The show was nominated for the Adolf Grimme Awards category entertainment/special in 2007 and 2008. Schlag den Raab won the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for Best Entertainment Show in 2007, and won a Goldene Kamera in the category Entertainment in 2008.

Games

Several video game adaptations of the show have been released for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms in Germany since 10 September 2010, as numerous versions of a board game and a quiz.