Advertisement
Dublin: 9 °C Friday 29 March, 2024
Samuel Koch (23) attempts to jump over a grey Audi driven by his father. Seconds later, he struck his head off it, knocking him unconscious on live television watched by millions.
TV Tragedy

Millions watch as thrillseeker knocked unconscious on live German TV

Samuel Koch fails in a stunt to jump over five cars – and is knocked unconscious by the one with his father at the wheel.

VIEWERS ACROSS GERMANY and the rest of German-speaking Europe were given a nasty surprise on Saturday night when one of Europe’s most widely-watched TV shows saw a man incur serious injuries when a stunt went terribly wrong.

Samuel Koch (23) was performing a stunt on German show Wetten, Dass…? (‘Wanna Bet?’) – a long-running show broadcast on the ZDF network but simulcast across Austria and Switzerland – in which he had to jump over five cars, while wearing specially spring-loaded pogo shoes.

But negotiating the fourth car, driven by his own father, Koch’s grip on the windscreen  - which he had attempted to use as a springboard – slipped, causing him to strike his head off the roof of the car, and knocking him immediately unconscious.

Panicked, the show’s producers immediately cut to images of the show’s celebrity guests – including Phil Collins and Cher – who recoiled in horror at the accident, before cutting to a long shot of the crowd, which itself was also stunned into silence at the accident.

The accident takes place in the first seconds of the following video:

Emergency parademics attended to Koch, and there was further confusion when Koch’s father – realising the injuries being sustained by his son – shouted at the show’s producers for placing a camera directly overhead, not realising that it was being used for its lighting rather than to record the incident.

The programme’s veteran host Thomas Gottschalk, after minutes of dead air, told viewers it would be inappropriate for the show to continue as if nothing had happened, and advised viewers that the show would take a 30 minute break while Koch was treated. As it happened, however, the show did not return to air.

Koch was rushed to a hospital in Düsseldorf where he underwent emergency surgery for serious spinal injuries. Hospital spokesmen say he remains in an “extremely critical stage”. German newspaper Bild reported that the man may be permanently injured as a result.

The curtailment of the show meant that scheduled performances from Take That and Justin Bieber were cancelled.

Wetten, Dass…? has aired regularly six or seven times annually, and has become an enormous televisual event in German-speaking Europe. The two-hour show began airing in 1981, and has spawned a number of international spinoffs, including ‘You Bet!’ in the UK, and ‘Wanna Bet?’ in the US.

Gottschalk – one of Germany’s best-loved TV hosts – told this morning’s Süddeutsche Zeitung that he was unsure whether the show would air again in future, given the inherent risk of some of its stunts.

No investigation is expected to take place, however, with the incident considered merely a tragic accident.