“The Palace”
The return of the ZDF series will be a total failure
Updated January 7, 2025 – 10:28 a.m.Reading time: 2 minutes.
The first season of “The Palace” caused a sensation. The sequel, however, seems to fail in every area.
Exactly three years ago, ZDF caused a sensation with a series of events. “The Palace” not only tells the story of twins who grew up separated by the construction of the Wall, but also the success of a Berlin institution: the Friedrichstadt-Palast. With around six million viewers, “Der Palast” was a popular hit in the ZDF program in 2022.
The story and the top cast with stars like Svenja Jung, Heino Ferch and Anja Kling seemed to attract many viewers. As a result, ZDF confidently announced a sequel – and launched the second season this week. But we can no longer speak of a triumphal march, quite the contrary.
Not even half of the original audience is present for the linear broadcast of the series. “Le Palais” reported such a surprisingly weak response that alarm bells should have rung at ZDF. The first two episodes, available in the ZDF media library shortly before Christmas, reached only 2.96 and 2.99 million viewers during their first broadcast on Monday during prime time.
Three years ago, the first episode of the series reached more than six million viewers, and the series was also made available in advance in the media library. The violent crash seems almost inexplicable, after all, ZDF also broadcast the series in 2022 at the beginning of January. So it cannot be due to a different period or season that “The Palace” turns into a total failure this time. At the same time, ARD managed to attract more than five million people to its television sets thanks to “Großstadtrevier”.
And there is little other consolation for ZDF: with a market share of 11.5 and 11.9 percent, the two episodes on Monday evening were even below the channel’s average. For those aged 14 to 49, the situation was downright catastrophic, at less than five percent. In view of these figures, ZDF will probably proclaim the slogan “Close your eyes and until the end” in the coming days, because the channel wants to broadcast two additional episodes of “Der Palast” in prime time on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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