Johannes Baptist Kerner (born 9 December 1964) is a German television host, journalist, and former
sportscaster.
Early life
Born in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
, Kerner was raised in Hersel,
Bornheim, in a Catholic household. He attended boarding school at
Aloisiuskolleg
The Aloisiuskolleg is a co-educational, Jesuit (Catholic), University-preparatory school in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Germany, which includes boarders. It is named for Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Highly ranked academically, it is considered one of the m ...
in Bonn and went on to study business administration in Berlin, but did not graduate.
Career
He started his career in television at
Sender Freies Berlin
Sender Freies Berlin (; abbreviated SFB ; ) was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003. On 1 May 2003 it merged with Ostdeu ...
in 1986 first as an intern, then as a reporter for local sportscasts. From 1990 to 1992 he regularly hosted "Punkt 4 Länderreport", a national afternoon
newscast
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...
on
ARD.
He became known to a wider audience as a host and producer for the football show ''ran – Sat.1 Bundesliga'' on the private
Sat.1 channel when the network acquired the broadcasting rights to the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
, the highest national football league in Germany. He hosted the show from August 1992 until end of 1997 in rotation with several other young broadcasters who went on to become TV personalities in Germany, including
Reinhold Beckmann
Reinhold Beckmann (born 23 February 1956) is a German journalist and television presenter.
He was born in Twistringen, Lower Saxony. After school in Syke, he studied German, film and theatre in Cologne.
In 1980, Beckmann began to work for bro ...
(who now hosts his own weekly talk show),
Oliver Welke
Oliver Welke (born 19 April 1966) is a German television presenter, journalist, satirist, comedian and voice actor.
Biography
Welke was born in Bielefeld and studied journalism at the University of Münster, graduating in 1993. He then worke ...
and
Monica Lierhaus
Monica-Christiane Lierhaus (born 25 May 1970 in Hamburg) is a German sports journalist.
In 1989 she passed her ''Abitur'' at the Charlotte-Paulsen-Gymnasium in Hamburg. She studied English and German literature at the University of Hamburg duri ...
. For this show he received a number of awards, including a prize as the most well-liked sportscaster in 1996 and 1997 by the German sports magazine ''
Sport Bild
Sport Bild is a German weekly sports magazine published in Hamburg, Germany.
History and profile
''Sport Bild'' was established in 1988. It is published weekly every Wednesday. The magazine has its headquarters in Hamburg and is published by Ax ...
''.
In 1996, Kerner started his first daily afternoon talkshow on Sat 1 simply called ''Kerner''.
In 1997, he switched to a public television channel again, this time to
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
(as an independent freelancer) where he was a host for the weekly sports review ''das aktuelle sportstudio'' (until 2006) and a number of football games played by the German national team. He served as main host for all games broadcast by ZDF during the
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
2006 in Germany in front of a large live audience in Berlin, for which he received a ''Deutscher Fernsehpreis'' award (comparable to an
Emmy). In addition to this, he was
master of ceremonies for several special show programs on ZDF such as yearly reviews of the people and stories making news in the past twelve months around Christmas.
In 2009, Kerner switched back to Sat.1 for a TV show simply called ''Kerner'', as a magazine now.
''Johannes B. Kerner Show''
His eponymous talk show went on air every Thursday night on ZDF at around 11 pm since January 1998. It was expanded to four times per week from Tuesday to Friday in January 2002. The show features mostly German celebrities and TV personalities, as well as regular people's stories. Unlike many late night shows, ''Johannes B. Kerner'' does not open with Kerner holding any stand-up monologue and only has him sitting at a desk and talking with a number of guests seated next to him (usually three to five). Also there is no regular live band in the studio.
Since 21 January 2005, his Friday evening session has been transformed into a cooking show called ''Kochen bei Kerner'' ("Cooking with Kerner"). Normally the show features five chefs who each explain and prepare a course for an elaborate meal live and within one hour. After each cook has finished his or her dish Kerner and the others are tasting and informally judging it, before some people in the audience also receive a sample of it. The show regularly features chefs from German-speaking countries such as
Johann Lafer
Johann Lafer (born September 27, 1957, in Sankt Stefan im Rosental, Styria, Austria) is an Austrian chef living in Germany.
Johann Lafer became well known through his TV cooking show and his numerous cookbooks. His television show is self-pro ...
,
Alfons Schubeck,
Tim Mälzer
Tim Mälzer (born 22 January 1971 in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German television chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and television presenter.
Biography
Mälzer was born in 1971 in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein, the son of a salesman ...
,
Sarah Wiener, Ralf Zacherl and
Horst Lichter
Wilhelm Horst Lichter (born 15 January 1962) is a German cook, television cook, cookbook author, and television presenter. He also occasionally appears on stage as an entertainer.
Life and career
Lichter was born on 15 January 1962 in Rommer ...
, as well as occasionally some chefs like
Jamie Oliver
James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants.
Oliver reac ...
.
Personal life
Kerner married
Britta Becker
Britta Becker (born 11 May 1973 in Rüsselsheim) is a German former field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a ro ...
, a former
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
World Cup and Olympic medalist for Germany in April 1996. They have four children: Emily Blomma (born January 1999), Nik David (born October 2001), Polly Marie (born 30 June 2007) and Jilly Lina (born 20 October 2009). The family currently resides in Hamburg, where his talk show is produced.
On 13 March 2020, Kerner tested positive for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
.
References
External links
His Official website in Sat.1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerner, Johannes B.
1964 births
Living people
Mass media people from Bonn
Television people from North Rhine-Westphalia
German sports journalists
German sports broadcasters
German male journalists
German television talk show hosts
German Roman Catholics
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
German male writers
ZDF people
Sat.1 people