In almost 22 years, Frank Plasberg has committed himself to the motto “Hard but fair” almost 750 times. But that’s over in November. The 65-year-old hands over the moderation of the ARD political talk show of the same name. His successor has already been determined: ntv talker Louis Klamroth.
In a few weeks, an era will end at ARD: Frank Plasberg will be leading the political talk show “Hart aber fair” for the last time in November, which has been broadcast live on public television every Monday since 2001. This was announced by West German Broadcasting (WDR), which is responsible for producing the format.
Plasberg moderated the show from the start – nearly 750 times to date. Until 2007, “Hart aber fair” only ran on WDR television, before the political talk switched to Erste and thus to the main program of ARD. Only at the beginning of 2020 did Plasberg have to be represented by Susan Link for a few weeks due to illness.
“When you have traveled with a program for so long, you also want it to develop further. And now is the right time for that,” Plasberg is quoted as saying about his approaching farewell. He is convinced that he will continue to be “enthusiastic” on Monday evenings – as a spectator.
After all, it is already clear who will succeed Plasberg. From now on, actor and moderator Louis Klamroth will lead through “hard but fair”, the WDR announced. He is well known to ntv viewers. For his ntv political talk show “Klamroths Konter” he won, among other things, the sponsorship award of the German Television Prize in 2018.
“I am very pleased to be able to help shape this program in this prominent slot as a moderator next year and to be able to lead it into the future,” says Klamroth about his new task. He is scheduled to present the show for the first time in January.
The program director responsible for information, fiction and entertainment at WDR, Jörg Schönenborn, thanked Plasberg for his work. At the same time, he made it clear that he was looking forward to the “new ideas” that Klamroth would bring to the show as a “clever and sensitive observer of our society”. “‘Hard but fair’ will change and yet remain true to the most important principle: that politics meets reality in the show and has to explain and prove itself in the process,” assures Schönenborn.
