The former showed a new episode of “The Croatian Crime” series on Thursday night (February 15), while a new episode of “Bergdoktor” ran on ZDF. “Blamieren oder Kassieren” was broadcast on RTL and “1% quiz – how smart is Germany?” with Jörg Pilawa was shown on the 1st Saturday. The 19th season of “Germany's Next Top Model” started on ProSieben, while kapel eins wanted to score points with the documentary soap “Roadtrip Amerika 2 – Three Top Chefs on Four Wheels” and VOX wanted to score points with “The Expendables”. RTLZWEI showed “Tough Germany – life in focus”. But which format was able to attract the most viewers to the screen?

“Germany's Next Top Model” does not make the top 10

“Der Bergdoktor” on ZDF (20.15) won the rating duel on Thursday evening. The new episode was watched by 5.21 million people – this corresponded to a 19.6 percent market share. In second place is the episode “The Dead Women of Brac” from “The Croatian Crime” (Das Erste, 20:15): 5.06 million viewers (market share: 19 percent). Third place went to “Tagesschau” (Das Erste, 20:00) with 4.75 million people and a market share of 18.7 percent. “Germany's Next Top Model” did not make it to the top ten most watched formats (total viewers).

However, Heidi Klum's show scored well among young audiences and landed in first place with 1.22 million people aged 14-49 tuning in. This corresponds to a market share of 23.3 percent. Here, “Tagesschau” was in second place (0.82 million people, 16.7 percent market share), followed by “1% quiz – how smart is Germany?” in third place. (0.57 million people, 10 percent market share).

This is how TV ratings are determined

Audience estimates are determined for approximately 5,000 representative households. According to AGF Videoforschung GmbH, they are a “reduced image of all private households with at least one television set in Germany”. The company is responsible for data collection and involves ARD and ZDF as well as private broadcasters and companies. The data has been collected since 1963, although there was a change in 2016: from then on, only households where the main earner speaks German are included. The measurement is performed by devices that record TV sound signals and compare them with the sound patterns of TV channels. As of 2020, the extent of streaming offers has also been measured in some representative households.

This article's “Bergdoktor” or “Germany's Next Top Model”? The original “clear winner of the rating duel” comes from TV Spielfilm.