Gottschalk is “no longer interested” after a confusing appearance at the Austrian TV awards

In his speech, the 75-year-old first thanked the audience. He said seamlessly: “I’ll have to apologize again tomorrow. In Germany, because I said I like the Austrian humor a little more than the German one. But that’s just the way it is.” He received applause for this.

The day after, he praised himself for his performance to “Bild”: “I wasn’t that badwas as usual and didn’t offend anyone. “I only bugged the Austrians a bit because I praised their humor,” he says. Otherwise, I didn’t think what I did was that bad,” said Gottschalk. His wife is of the same opinion.

But Gottschalk also admitted: “I didn’t feel like it anymore. In general, I’m fed up with the whole thing. I don’t want to be on stage anymore.” He explained that his moderator colleague also felt the same Günther Jauch the person he had dinner with last week. “He feels the same as me. We are past our best times. We’ve seen the good times on TV and we both feel it won’t get any better.”

At the Romys, Gottschalk spoke into the microphone while bending slightly, then raised the microphone stand, which was obviously set too low, and explained this. “In Germany we have microphones that come out of the ground as high as the height of the eulogist. With Otto it was less, but for me it has to be a little higher.”

Lots of Romys for Tommy

So he turned to the Austrian director Otto Retzer, who was standing next to him (in the cover photo on the left) to. “Otto, for you that would even be a tip for a film, a Romy for Tommy, but I think in that case a series would be better, the many Romys for Tommy.” He continued stammering, repeating the words Romy and Tommy several times. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t rhyme, I have to say. I’m used to things rhyming. But I didn’t think about it as carefully as I haven’t thought about a lot of things I’ve said in my entire career.”

Then he counted down the time while looking at the floor. On television shows, clocks running backwards show how much time the presenters have left. “30, I still have 29 seconds, 28, 27, 26, 25 – the time is running down here, you can see how much time you have left, but where is Romy?”

With these words, “Bergdoktor” actor Hans Sigl entered the stage: “A good question. Relax, Tommy.” The clock doesn’t matter now because “you’re Tommy.” The two took a selfie on stage, Gottschalk slowly seemed much more relaxed.

As a “Wetten,dass..?” presenter, Gottschalk often had difficulty adhering to broadcast times. The 75-year-old is one of the most successful show hosts in German television history.

Richard Grasl, managing director of the Austrian newspaper “Kurier”, which presents the Romy Awards, handed over the Crystal Romy to Gottschalk. The figure is set with 20 diamonds. “As a belt,” said Gottschalk. “He has shingles, shingles.”

A Romy that had previously been given to him had melted in the fire in Gottschalk’s house in Malibu, California, as Grasl recalled. Should such a catastrophe occur again, he hopes that this time at least the diamonds will remain, said Gottschalk. In November 2018, a severe fire raged around Malibu, devastating large areas of land and destroying more than 1,500 houses. At that time, presenter Thomas Gottschalk’s house burned down, among other things.

Grasl said he also wanted to give this Romy to Gottschalk “because we in the media and we as a society have to stand by the fact that if you do something right a thousand times and maybe don’t do something quite well half a time, you still remain a superstar.” The Austrian TV and Film Prize Romy is awarded in numerous categories through audience voting.

Irritation bei Bambi-Gala

In recent years, Gottschalk has faced increasing headwinds when he speaks critically about social issues. At times he has also been accused of sexism. At the Bambi gala two weeks ago, the 75-year-old received boos when he announced US pop star Cher with the sentence: “Here she is, the only woman I have taken seriously in my life.” Gottschalk came to the gala with his wife Karina.

The next day he apologized for the statement. “I hereby expressly take back the quote regarding ‘taking women seriously’ and apologize for it. I take women very seriously. Nobody knows that better than me,” Gottschalk told “Spiegel”.

Cher was honored as a “Legend” that evening. Gottschalk seemed disoriented and floundered. He later explained that the performance of a Cher double confused him and then he blacked out. In his Bambi presentation, he also went into a long episode about the fact that his own Bambi trophy had melted down in his burnt-down villa in Malibu.

Show-off next weekend

The experienced television presenter announced his exit from the show in May – shortly before his birthday. Next Saturday, December 6th, he will host the show “Because they don’t know what’s happening” with Barbara Schöneberger (51) and Günther Jauch (69) for the last time on RTL. After that he wanted to withdraw from the public eye, he recently told the magazine “Bunte”. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll never make a sound again.”

On Friday evening, Gottschalk commented on his Romy: “I once had to share a Romy with Michael Jackson, but this one belongs to me alone. Michael left, as competition, so to speak.” The pop icon died in 2009 from an overdose of propofol, a powerful anesthetic.

The appearance caused astonishment on the Internet. After the award ceremony, Gottschalk said according to “Bild”: “I’m as well as a 75-year-old can be and I’m as fit as you can be at 75.” He’s not lazy at the moment. “We’re currently moving, so I’m carrying a lot of CDs and boxes of books that I’ve collected over the course of my life.”