| Neues aus der Anstalt | |
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Titlecard for Neues aus der Anstalt |
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| Genre | political cabaret |
| Presented by | Urban Priol (2007-) Georg Schramm (2007-2010) Frank-Markus Barwasser (2010-) |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Language(s) | German |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | ZDF |
| Running time | 2007- |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ZDF |
Neues aus der Anstalt (sometimes simply referred to as Die Anstalt) is a political cabaret program on German television station ZDF, hosted by Urban Priol and Georg Schramm. Broadcast monthly since 2007, it usually features three guest cabaret artists in addition to the hosts.
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ZDF has not broadcast a cabaret program since the cancellation of Notizen aus der Provinz with Dieter Hildebrandt in 1979, who, as a result, switched to the other German public broadcasting channel, Das Erste, where he founded the Scheibenwischer.[1]
Neues aus der Anstalt was first broadcast on January 24, 2007 after the heute journal.
The show is broadcast live from Munich, one Tuesday evening a month.[2] Its theme is a fictional psychiatric clinic where Priol acts as the head of medicine,[3] while Schramm portrays some of his characters as patients. Schramm's pensioner Lothar Dombrowski, acts as the patients' spokesperson.[4] He also appears as the old Hessian social democrat August and the Bundeswehr officer Oberstleutnant Sanftleben.[4]) Up to three guest artists portray other characters, either fellow patients or outside visitors, as well. Frank-Markus Barwasser in his alter ego Erwin Pelzig is replacing Georg Schramm and his different characters as the co-host of the show.
Similar to the Scheibenwischer, Neues aus der Anstalt strives to limit its content to political cabaret and does not feature other kinds of humor, such as stand-up or situational comedy. The German word Anstalt (institution) is used for both mental institutions (Irrenanstalt, Nervenheilanstalt) and public broadcasting institutions (Rundfunkanstalt).
The show surpassed the Scheibenwischer's ratings by over a million viewers in its first broadcast.[5] The second broadcast was less successful though. Ratings fell to the level of Scheibenwischer, although the show attracted a larger number of younger viewers, compared to the usual demographic of ZDF viewers.[6] Although the ratings were lower than the first broadcast, they remained good, capturing a 13% market share (2.73 million per show) in its first year[7] and stayed at that level.[8]