ZDF Studios’ Ralf Rückauer, ZDF’s Nadine Kerstan, and Rollercoaster Studios’ James Fox join ScreenMDM Talks to showcase the journey of the iconic German entertainment show Wetten, dass..? as it gets reinvented at home and remade internationally.
For more than four decades, Wetten, dass..? has entertained German families on Saturday nights. Thomas Gottschalk hosted the show—in which ordinary people attempt improbable physical feats, encouraged by celebrity guests—for much of its original run on ZDF, which ended in 2014, before returning for a series of specials in 2021. Even after that long hiatus, the iconic institution delivered for the German pubcaster, scoring market shares of more than 40%. That success prompted the inevitable question: “How can we continue this success?” Nadine Kerstan, EP of the series, tells ScreenMDM. “How can we bring this entertainment show that people obviously still love and want into 2026 with audiences who have different needs now and use social media?”
Enter Bill and Tom Kaulitz, the widely recognizable brothers at the center of Tokio Hotel, one of Germany’s most globally successful rock acts, who have a Netflix series and a massive social media following. “They have this authentic way of engaging with the audience,” Kerstan says.
The move to make them the successors to Gottschalk is less a handover and more a natural evolution, Kerstan says, with the DNA of the show remaining intact while “adding something new to it—opening the door to something new to hopefully a younger audience that will get to know the format and, of course, keeping the fans who have loved Wetten, dass..? for the last 40 years.”
To meet younger viewers where they are, the show launched an Instagram channel earlier this year, Kerstan notes, delivering a “more modern touch” to the iconic format.
Watch the full episode on YouTube or Spotify, or keep reading about the Wanna Bet? journey below.
Ralf Rückauer, VP Unscripted at ZDF Studios, which distributes the Wanna Bet? format internationally, was initially surprised by the move to make the Kaulitz brothers Gottschalk’s successors, but quickly came to realize it was “the best choice ever.” He expects the German return will help propel further international interest in the format, which has already been remade in Belgium, China, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, the United States, and the U.K., where it has been adapted twice, both times for ITV.
Rollercoaster Studios is behind the most recent U.K. version, You Bet!, which premiered with two specials in 2024, followed by a six-episode run in 2025. Like Rückauer, James Fox, joint managing director at Rollercoaster Studios, grew up with the show, first remade in the U.K. in the 80s and 90s. At a time when a lot of broadcasters and platforms were looking for classic brands to reboot, Rollercoaster made the case at ITV for You Bet! to return.
“Here’s a show that can do big scale, big family moments and have that mix of celebrity and regular people,” Fox says. “And I think that’s the real heart of the show. You can have a really fun, big-name celebrity panel, but also, you’ve got regular people doing extraordinary things.”
Just as the original German version has adapted to the times, Rollercoaster made its own shifts with the new seasons; while the 2024 edition was set in a studio, last year’s amped up its ambitions and went on the road.
The format has always been studio-based, so taking it on tour—with hour-long prerecorded episodes, versus Germany’s live three-hour blocks—required some in-depth conversations with the team at ZDF and ZDF Studios.
“Is this still Wanna Bet?, our lovely event with all the heritage?” Rückauer says. “We were brave enough to say yes, because the core still is an average Joe performing in front of celebrities. That core remains.”
Fox calls that adaptability “the mark of a great format. As Ralf says, the heart of it is about these ordinary people taking on an extraordinary challenge, and a big-name star has just said yes or no to, Can they do it or not? You’ve got to see what happens. You’ve got to watch to the end of that. And so that’s what pulls people through, and then the shape around it can adapt depending on which market you’re in.”
The magic of the show, Kerstan, Fox, and Rückauer add, lies in its ability to bring multiple generations of a family together in front of the living room television.
“It’s always called the nation’s campfire,” Kerstan says of the German original. “We still believe in this, and it’s probably more important than ever. That’s one of the things that we need to fulfill, especially as a public TV broadcaster.”
“Entertainment formats like the ones that we make can still do that,” Fox adds. “The big formats that are traveling around the world, there’s something about them that has that shared viewership—I can sit and watch this show with my kids, with my mum, with the whole family. There are fewer and fewer of those, as the market gets more segmented. These shows can do that—they can actually bring people together. Wetten, dass..? is the gold standard of that.”
