"DSDS" has not only produced one hit star. But that should now be over. Dieter Bohlen is planning a countermovement.
"Deutschland sucht den Superstar" will start its 18th season in January 2021 (also on TVNow). Castings on the Rhine on board the Blue Rhapsody have been running since September 14th. Of course, one of the parties: Chief judge Dieter Bohlen (66) along with this year's colleagues Michael Wendler (48), Maite Kelly (40) and Mike Singer (20). The pop titan didn't know any of them personally before the recording began. For him it is therefore "an adventure", as he said in the official press conference for the broadcast on Friday (September 25th).
An adventure that started "bumpy" according to RTL entertainment director Kai Sturm. The corona pandemic made itself felt in the casting registration numbers. Not tragic for Bohlen, however, as the quantity is not in the foreground for him. "It's about finding candidates who are interesting." With success? The 66-year-old was satisfied: "I saw the shrillest candidate of all 18 years – beyond my imagination." He laughed tears for ten minutes.
The end of German music?
The hobbyhorse of this year's jury is clearly German music. But she's not looking for perfect singers. "We don't need a new Helene Fischer. We need new influences," said Bohlen. After so many years, you can only convince him with feeling – and entertainer qualities.
A little paradoxical: Although he brought exclusively German-speaking artists behind the jury panel with Wendler, Kelly and Singer and recently produced two big pop stars with Ramon Roselly (26, "Eine Nacht") and Beatrice Egli (32), the pop titan wanted In the future, more and more international trains will be used again. "With German music you can hardly make interesting copyrights, that is, sell them abroad," he explained.
Where do the recalls take place?
As the head of entertainment Sturm emphasized, the 18th season of "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" could only be planned for the short term. Nobody knows how the corona situation will develop in the coming weeks. Therefore, the probability is "extremely high" that the recalls will take place in Germany. In recent years these have been recorded in South Africa, Thailand and Dubai, among others. It is also currently uncertain how many live shows there will be and where the final will take place.