At the first live show of the current season of "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" the candidates were more of an accessory and the comeback of the first "DSDS" winner Alexander Klaws (36) as a moderator moved into the background. Instead, the audience was eagerly awaiting what pop titan and jury boss Dieter Bohlen (66) would say about the sudden expulsion of juror colleague Xavier Naidoo (48). He did this too, but for the way it was hailing on the social networks and criticism of planks.
Because it was only at the very end of the show that he made a statement. So he was in the Cause Naidoo: "We are doing an entertainment program here, and it is about entertainment, not about hatred or any baiting. That is why the whole jury and the whole team is behind the decision of RTL." At the same time, he emphasized that the show is "about the singers and not about the jury". "Some of them got a little confused in the last week. We're not looking for the super jurors or who knows what."
Hold-up tactics for the quota?
According to this statement, it was largely agreed on the net that Mr. Bohlen and the broadcaster did not cover themselves with fame. On the one hand, some sensed a perfidious move on the basis of the fact that Bohlen needed time to think about the ejection at the start of the program, to provide for quota: "… in the end, the quota is more important to the colleagues at RTL than a clear distance from xenophobia and racist agitation."
And secondly: Dieter Bohlen is known for clearly telling the sometimes unfortunate candidates how catastrophic he finds their singing. Many viewers would have liked such clear words with regard to the racist statements of a Xavier Naidoo – but were completely disappointed: "It was to be expected. He simply has no ass in his pants for that." Another asks: "Who found Dieter Bohlen's backbone?" And a third stated: "With beautiful legs and ugly voices from teenagers, Bohlen somehow puts it in a gripper style."
"Team Naidoo" is angry too
A third faction, on the other hand, would have preferred that Bohlen did not share RTL 's decision, but jumped to the side of his former jury colleague: "Sad that no one on the jury has to stand behind Xavier, last week he was for Dieter and the others are still the best singers in Germany and now they just fuss around and Dieter with his I still need time to think … laughable. "
The stumbling block was a video from 2018 in which Naidoo allegedly baited refugees. The singer subsequently denied these allegations in a statement on Facebook. "Racial hatred and xenophobia are completely alien to him, even if he sometimes expresses himself emotionally artistically," it says, among other things.