Kabel Eins replaced the US series on Friday with True Crime

Kabel Eins is expanding its program to include a third day for its own productions. Specifically, Friday evenings from October 18th will be filled with new true crime formats, thus pushing back US crime series. This was announced by station boss Felix von Mengden in an interview with “Meedia”. “True crime is the genre of the moment,” said von Mengden. “Podcasts on the subject are achieving record numbers of hits, and it is now also omnipresent in print media. The time is also absolutely ripe to bring true crime back to prime time on television.”

The first is the production of “Germany’s most spectacular criminal cases” by Spiegel TV. The production company has already produced a similar format for the broadcaster in the past. Five episodes are planned initially, focusing on “major cases that affected the whole of Germany at the time”. Later in the year, an as yet unnamed project by Janus Productions will follow – with a “slightly different and very unique hook”, as Felix von Mengden says. “The cases are opened up from the last sign of life of the victim. It can be a voice message on the cell phone, the emergency call to the police or the last image from a surveillance camera.”

After the true crime block, cable will initially return to US series, as the station boss emphasized in the “Meedia” interview. “In the long term, we will remain in true crime programming all evening.” This is also linked to the declining citations of American series. “Overall, we are also noticing certain signs of wear and tear in licensed series,” admits von Mengden. “But large franchises such as ‘NCIS’ or ‘The Mentalist’ are still reliable and important pillars for us.”

Two years ago, Kabel Eins had already temporarily made Saturday the third evening for in-house productions with formats such as “The Secret World…” – but because the quotes were manageable, this adjustment was quickly turned back.