HÜRTH (dpa-AFX) - ProSieben wants to build on old successes with the "Quatsch Comedy Club" and is presenting the "Quatsch Comedy Show" from this Wednesday (9.25 pm). The hosts of the new format are comedy greats Khalid Bounouar and Tahnee. "It's great that Quatsch is back on ProSieben, even in such a prominent slot," Tahnee told the German Press Agency.

Especially in such difficult times, a bit of lightness is important. "We want the viewers to be taken out of their everyday lives. The show is absolutely varied and it feels like something new happens every two or three minutes," explained the 32-year-old. "We use different colors of humor, which is also the great thing about a mixed show."

In their first show, the presenting duo welcomes stand-up comedians Chris Tall, Marcel Kosling, Osan Yaran and Ingmar Stadelmann. The latter also appears together with Ilka Bessin in a separate segment.

The "Quatsch Comedy" cosmos goes back to a stage show by entertainer Thomas Hermanns, which began in Hamburg in 1992. Hermanns made the US concept of stand-up comedy socially acceptable in this country. Many well-known comedians, including Carolin Kebekus, Dieter Nuhr and Ilka Bessin, first made it big with these shows, which were later also broadcast on television. The "Quatsch Comedy Club" moved to Berlin in the 90s. The stage shows still exist today.

The program was first shown on the pay channel Premiere, then on ProSieben from 1997. For a while, the format had a huge impact on the station's image. Most recently, however, only occasional special editions of "Quatsch Comedy Club" were shown there. Thomas Hermanns then said goodbye in December 2022.

"The fact that Thomas Hermanns has decided to hand over the sceptre and say that someone else will do it now takes courage and that honors us," said Bounouar, who, like Tahnee, used to appear in the "Quatsch Comedy Club" himself. Of course, the spirit of the "Quatsch Comedy Club" runs through the show, added Tahnee. "We are continuing an existing brand and therefore not reinventing the wheel, but adding show elements to it and making it even more colorful." One new element is a challenge at the end of each show, for example, in which the guests have to fire off spontaneous jokes in an improv game./jgl/DP/zb