Alina Merkau: This is how Corona changed work on television

Alina Merkau is one of the most popular faces on Sat.1 "Breakfast TV". In the interview, she talks about her work during Corona.

She is one of the most popular faces on "Breakfast TV" on Sat.1: Alina Merkau (34). Since 2014 she has been moderating alongside Matthias Killing (41). Now the Berlin-born woman tried a special experience: the 34-year-old blindly explored an exhibition.

Just in time for World Sight Day on October 8th, the cultural institution "Dialog im Dunkeln" and the optics company Apollo hosted a digital live event to raise public awareness of the issues of visual impairment and blindness, like so many others in the face of the Corona crisis takes a back seat. In the interview, the moderator looks back on her change of perspective and also talks about her very own challenges in the Corona crisis.

Ms. Merkau, how did it feel for you to move through the exhibition so completely blindly?

Alina Merkau; This change of perspective opened my eyes in the truest sense of the word. I myself will go through everyday life much more attentively – but also through my life. Because luckily I still have two healthy eyes. So that it stays that way, I will go to the eye check more often in the future. So far I've been one of those who, according to the Apollo survey, do it far too rarely.

As a child, did you suffer from poor eyesight yourself?

Merkau: Yes, when I was seven years old and couldn't read the capitalized stations on the train, my mother took me to the ophthalmologist. Only now did it become apparent that I suffered from severe visual impairment and I immediately got large glasses that I wore until I was 13. I was lucky because it was a farsightedness that has grown together. Today the diopters are so low that I no longer have to wear glasses.

Many forego glasses out of vanity. Would you consider yourself vain?

Merkau: I think so. As a young girl, I sometimes suffered from having to wear glasses with such high prescription glasses. However, the relationship to glasses has changed. Today they are worn as a fashion accessory and I even had one made so that I could wear them in certain situations. I think it's great!

You have been a member of "Sat.1 Breakfast TV" since October 2014. Don't you mind getting up early?

Merkau: I'm basically an early bird and not a morning grouch. But getting up at 3 a.m. is not easy and of course the energy suffers at some point … Fortunately, when the cameras are on and my colleagues are around me, I quickly forget the time.

What influence does the Corona crisis have on the show, what has changed in the meantime?

Merkau: Distance regulations, masks on the face, partitions at the workstations and only a few people in the studio were a real change in the beginning. Breakfast television lives from being together and we all see ourselves as a small family. In the meantime you have got used to many things and the processes no longer seem strange to you. Finally we are receiving guests in the studio again and I very much hope that at some point we will be able to work closely together again as usual!

The content of the pandemic also determines the program. Are you tired of reporting about it again and again?

Merkau: I think each of us sometimes feels a boredom with information and when you are so close, a short sigh is often inevitable. It is our job to provide daily journalistic information and the pandemic is currently affecting our lives like nothing else. Fortunately, we always manage to find new approaches and stay close to people.

Do you miss going to events and walking the red carpet?

Merkau: To be honest, not. As a rule, I rarely go to events and otherwise prefer to enjoy spending time with friends and family. But of course I see the aspect of many jobs that are on the brink. I very much hope for the event industry that a familiar togetherness will be possible again here.

How do you personally experience the pandemic?

Merkau: If I stay in my little cosmos, I have acclimatized myself and apart from the mask in the supermarket, I hardly notice anything of the pandemic. But as soon as I think outside the box, I see a lot of disasters, people on short-time work, disagreements and the situation makes me unsafe too. I didn't think that the world was spinning so fast. Today people appreciate things that were completely normal six months ago and I would like these freedoms back at some point. But at the moment health comes first.

What do you look forward to the most when something like normal returns?

Merkau: To foreign cultures and countries! I love to travel, it gives me a feeling of freedom and cohesion. This year we will not do it and I think it will be even longer before you can move freely around the world again. But I am sure that we will then experience it even more consciously.

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