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Harald Schmidt is a Germany|German television
entertainer.

Schmidt is host of the German late night show
comparable to Late Night with Conan O'Brien or
Late Night with David Letterman, which has now
begun a second run after a year-long "creative
break". The original show, named Die Harald
Schmidt Show and shown on German television
network SAT.1, featured stand-up comedy as well as
famous national and international guests. The set,
general feel and many of his earlier gags were in
fact acquired directly from David Letterman
("studiocams", etc.). With time, Schmidt, however,
developed his own flavor of more high-brow,
sophisticated humor. Schmidt has now begun a
second run with a new show on publicly funded ARD
(TV)|ARD, this time without "celebrity" interviews
and with even more discussion of current events in
a rather freely associative manner. As the German
entertainer Thomas Gottschalk recently quipped,
Schmidt will always attract the student and
intellectual crowd, Gottschalk himself will take
care of the rest.

The self-proclaimed hypochondriac became popular
for his cynical jokes and intellectual wit. He
models himself after people like Johnny Carson and
Conan O'Brien, but adds important factors and
qualities to his show that neither of these models
has. He engages in long, seemingly boring
conversations with his "editor-in-chief" Manuel
Andrack, who sits at a desk next to Schmidt's,
and, like Letterman, also includes his staff into
the show. For instance, his band leader Helmut
Zerlett and his cue card girl Suzana Novinscak
(both omitted in the new show). 

Especially during the first years of Die Harald
Schmidt Show, Schmidt was sometimes criticised for
making fun of minorities like foreigners or gays.
His supporters felt that those critics were
incapable of understanding satire. Indeed, a
steady number of viewers liked the show, many
seeing it as a kind of cult television. In its
later years, the show became a critic's favourite
due to Schmidt's "intellectual" sense of humour.
For example, he hosted one show completely in
French language|French. On another occasion, the
screen was blacked for half of the show making it
into a "radio|radio broadcast". Another time, he
disproved a critic who had written that it is
impossible to spend several minutes on TV just
cracking nuts.

Awards include the viewers choice award Bambi, the
Grimme Award, the Golden Camera and the Golden
Lion as best showmaster.

== Biography ==

Schmidt was born on August 18, 1957 in Neu-Ulm,
Germany and spent his youth in Nürtingen, where
he went to grammar school. He committed time to
the Catholic church, became choirmaster and played
the organ. 

At the age of 21, he went to Stuttgart to attend
drama school, where he stayed for three years.
After that, Schmidt gained on-stage experience at
Städtische Bühne in Augsburg. His first role was
that of the 2nd Mamaluke in Gotthold
Lessing|Lessing's Nathan the Wise. In 1984, he
became a text writer for the cabaret Kom(m)ödchen
in Düsseldorf and two years later, in 1986,
Schmidt was honoured as "Best Newcomer cabaret
artist" and toured through Germany with his own
show. 

It did not take long before TV noticed the
talented young comedian, and in 1988, Schmidt
began to host his first TV show MAZ ab. Shows like
Psst! and Schmidteinander followed, but the
biggest boost to his career occurred in 1992, when
he became host of the popular Saturday night show
called Verstehen Sie Spaß? (Candid Camera
format), which features people being filmed with
hidden cameras in embarrassing and funny
situations. At this time Schmidt was awarded the
most important German TV award, the Grimme Award,
but it would not be his last one. Only one year
later, he was honoured as "Entertainer of the
year" and awarded the famous Bambi award|Bambi and
the Golden Camera award|Golden Camera.  

In 1995, Schmidt took another important step in
his career when he changed from the publicly
funded TV station ARD to the privately owned
channel SAT.1 and started Die Harald Schmidt Show.
It was not the first time that such a late night
show was shown in German TV, since Thomas
Koschwitz hosted one a few years earlier.

From June 30, 2003 the show would be broadcast
five days a week, including Monday evening.

On December 8, 2003, the end of the show was
suddenly announced by Schmidt, following a change
of management of SAT.1. The last show was aired on
December 23, 2003.

In 2004, Schmidt toured through Germany with a
live comedy show, featuring Manuel Andrack.

On December 23, 2004, the new show began featuring
Manuel Andrack, back on ARD, where Schmidt began
his work on TV. The show now airs twice a week.

Harald Schmidt resides in Cologne with his
girlfriend and two children.

== External links ==
*http://www.schmidt.de/ Die Harald Schmidt Show
(old site)
*imdb name|id=0772969|name=Harald Schmidt
*http://www.haraldschmidt.tv/ Schmidt's new Show
(ARD)