BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - After a six-week winter break, Friday night saw the first regular edition of ZDF's "heute Show" in 2023. Oliver Welke reported back from the studio of the satirical show and reached an average of 3.90 million viewers (18.1 percent market share) from 10:30 p.m. - practically the same number as with the last edition of 2022 on December 16. Last Friday (January 20), ZDF had broadcast a "heute-show spezial: Deutschland kriegt die (Energie)-Krise" with Lutz van der Horst and Fabian Köster, which was watched by only about 2.8 million.

Jan Böhmermann returns next week (on February 2) from what will then be an eight-week break for regular editions of his "ZDF Magazin Royale" - then again in the "late-night manner of satirical reappraisal of socio-political issues," as the second station puts it. This Friday night, 1.52 million (8.5 percent from 11 p.m.) watched a concert with Böhmermann and the Rundfunk dance orchestra called "ZDF Magazin Royale - Ehrenfeld Intergalactic."

The RTL jungle camp "Ich bin ein Star - Holt mich hier raus!" (I'm a star - get me out of here!), which lasted more than two hours, was watched by an average of 3.91 million (18.2 percent) starting at 9:30 p.m. - and by a strong 27.6 percent (1.46 million) in the 14- to 49-year-old age group.

In primetime from 8:15 p.m., ZDF was ahead overall: An average of 5.81 million watched the episode "Licht und Schatten" from the crime series "Der Staatsanwalt" (21.7 percent), and 4.85 million then watched the episode "Der letzte Wille" from the series "SOKO Leipzig" (18.4 percent from 9:15 p.m.). Das Erste got 3.43 million viewers (12.8 percent) with the ARD comedy "Das Leben ist kein Kindergarten - Vaterfreuden," and RTL got 2.34 million (8.8 percent) with the game show "Murmel Mania - Die deutsche Murmelmeisterschaft 2023."

The U.S. science fiction movie "Alita: Battle Angel" on ProSieben had 1.38 million viewers (5.4 percent) from 8:15 p.m., the crime series "Navy CIS" on Kabel eins 880,000 (3.3 percent), the Vox docu-soap "Wo die Liebe hinfällt - Jedes Paar ist anders" 850,000 (3.2 percent), the military drama "American Sniper" on RTLzwei 780,000 (3.8 percent) and the Sat.1-quiz show "Let the music play - Das große Promi Special" 570,000 (2.2 percent)./gth/DP/stw