On March 15, 2023, RTLzwei announced their plans for a new reality show featuring Michael Wendler, a controversial pop singer. However, just one day after the announcement, the network canceled the show due to the negative backlash from the public. The show was intended to follow Michael Wendler and his wife Laura, who is pregnant, and would showcase their personal lives, including the birth of their child, as the crowning moment of the show.
The announcement of the show immediately faced criticism and resistance from the public, including staff members of the network itself, such as Carmen Geiss, known from the program “The Geissens – A Terribly Glamorous Family.” The streaming service RTL+ also made it clear that they would not be broadcasting the show on their platform.
Michael Wendler’s public image has been marred with controversy since 2020, when he released a video accusing the federal government of violating the constitution with their COVID policies. The broadcaster RTL distanced themselves, calling him a conspiracy theorist. After he made more statements, including referring to Germany as a “concentration camp,” he was cut from the casting show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” and has not had a role in major television productions since.
On the Telegram platform, Wendler continued to share posts with false claims and extreme content, including the QAnon conspiracy theory. He shared slogans like “vaccination sets you free” and called the COVID vaccine a “poison injection.”
When faced with criticism for the new show, Wendler tried to appease by denying any racist or anti-Semitic remarks while also expressing regret for “many” of his statements. However, RTLzwei chose to cancel the project, stating that they always distance themselves from “extremism of all kinds” and strive for open-mindedness and tolerance.
In conclusion, the public’s outcry stopped the controversial reality show before it even began, showing the power of public opinion in shaping the media landscape.
