A tasteless statement by DSDS chief judge Dieter Bohlen (68) caused waves and triggered a sexism scandal on the casting show. Candidate Jill Lange (22) complained in tears in a TikTok video about the treatment at “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”. While RTL initially saw no need for action, Bohlen’s sexist comment on the TV broadcast last Wednesday (January 25) was cut from the scene. The broadcaster admitted a “mistake”. For Jill Lange, the matter is not yet forgotten, as she reveals to BUNTE.de.
The problem goes further for them. The 22-year-old is not only disappointed by Bohlen’s behavior towards her, but also by his co-juror Pietro Lombardi (30). After Jill’s participation in dating shows such as “Ex on the Beach” and “Are You The One” had already been smugly addressed by the announcer in a short film, Pietro Lombardi wanted to know more about it in the casting.
He said: “In such dating shows, you sometimes have something with that, sometimes with that, sometimes here, sometimes there (…)” and then asked Jill very directly: “That means you’ve also had something with several men? Jill stammered: “Um, yes.” Then Pietro spoke to Jill’s friend Lars, who accompanied her on DSDS and whom she had met on one of the dating shows: “How do you deal with that?” He wanted to know from him.
Jill Lange criticizes this in an interview with BUNTE.de: “I found the question superfluous because it’s a matter between my boyfriend and me, and if he couldn’t deal with it, he wouldn’t be with me. You would never have asked a man this question the other way around. A sexist allusion. “Juror Katja Krasavice also immediately punished Lombardi’s question in the casting as inappropriate: “Above all, ‘get along with it’,” she commented.
In the further course of the conversation, Bohlen said to the 22-year-old: “Did you do something normal or just Abi and then let yourself be noodled?” The streaming service RTL was able to see this in advance. There was a wave of outrage. An RTL spokeswoman justified the fact that the sexist question was then cut out with a delay: “In our view, the current season hits the intended tone, the said sentence is out of the ordinary.”
Jill Lange sees it differently. For her, the season doesn’t hit the mark overall, as she explains in an interview with BUNTE.de: “I absolutely don’t agree with that because I’m not the only one who is being put down. There people are reduced to their looks and their general background. The show should be about something completely different: the passion for singing.” After she made her case public, “many” other DSDS participants wrote to her “who also felt unfairly treated”.
Jill Lange is also firmly convinced that Bohlen would not have dealt with the current jungle camp candidate Gigi Birofio in a DSDS casting as she did with her. Gigi also started his reality TV career on dating shows. “You wouldn’t have spoken to men like that, because Dieter in particular still has the image in his head that women are not allowed to do the same things as men. Men are celebrated for their playboy behavior, while women are labeled straight as sluts.”
On the one hand, Jill Lange welcomes the fact that RTL decided to cut out the controversial scene for broadcast on television, “because more children watch it on free TV and the behavior of the jury is not exemplary”. But: “On the other hand, I’m pretty sad that you didn’t immediately realize that it went way too far,” she added. It is very unfortunate that it had to come to a scandal. “You simply notice that the work is very success-oriented and that less attention is paid to the people themselves.”
Scene was cut out – RTL admits “mistake” after Bohlen’s comment – and convenes a crisis meeting
TV column “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” – RTL cuts out Bohlen’s sexist comment about the candidate
The original of this post “DSDS candidate also criticizes Pietro Lombardi for “sexist allusion”” comes from Bunte.de.
