Particle.news
Download on the App Store
5 ARTICLES
·
last mo.

Spiegel Analysis Ranks Karl Lauterbach as Top German Talk Show Guest Over Past Decade

Using data from nearly 3,000 episodes, it reveals pandemic-era demand that boosted Lauterbach’s appearances alongside a stark gender imbalance of just 35 percent female guests.

Früherer Gesundheitsminister, langjähriger Talkshow-König Lauterbach
Markus Lanz hat besonders häufig Elmar Theveßen zu Gast.
Image
Kein anderer Politiker oder Journalist war in den vergangenen zehn Jahren häufiger zu Gast in Talkshows als der ehemalige SPD-Gesundheitsminister Karl Lauterbach.

Overview

  • Spiegel analyzed 2,932 episodes of ARD and ZDF prime-time talk shows from January 2015 to July 2025 using the publicly accessible fernsehserien.de archive.
  • Karl Lauterbach leads the ranking with 119 appearances, followed by ZDF’s Elmar Theveßen with 113, Welt’s Robin Alexander with 109, Norbert Röttgen with 97 and Markus Söder with 90.
  • Women made up only 35 percent of the 3,992 unique guests over the decade, with Sahra Wagenknecht as the most featured woman at 88 appearances.
  • The report links Lauterbach’s frequent invitations primarily to heightened interest in health expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The top five guest slots are occupied entirely by politicians and journalists, illustrating the interplay between media platforms and political visibility in Germany.