Stefan Raab

Stefan Konrad Raab (born 20 October 1966) is a German entertainer, television host, producer, and businessman. From 1999 to 2015, he hosted the late-night comedy talk show TV total on ProSieben and also created a number of other television shows on the channel, most notably Schlag den Raab and Bundesvision Song Contest.

Raab began his TV career hosting the comedy show Vivasion in 1993. He became well known in 1994 after composing a hit single spoofing national football coach Berti Vogts. In the early 2010s, German media considered him the "most powerful man in German entertainment television".

Raab is also credited with inventing wok racing and known for his recurring role as either producer, writer and/or performer of the German entries to the Eurovision Song Contest from 1998 to 2012. He was the initiator of the national pre-selection show Unser Star für Oslo ("Our Star for Oslo"), in which Germany's winning entry at the 2010 contest in Oslo was determined.

In 2015, Raab ended his on-screen career while staying active as a television producer. He made his public return in 2024.

Raab grew up in Cologne with his sister and their parents, who owned a butcher's shop. He attended Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn. Before entering the entertainment business, he completed an apprenticeship as a butcher in his parents' shop and studied law before dropping out of university after five semesters.

Raab became popular in Germany as the host of the comedy show Vivasion for German music television channel VIVA from 1993 to 1998.

In 1999, he created TV total which began airing in April 2001 on ProSieben, four times a week. While TV total started as a comedy format mainly showing and satirizing funny and embarrassing sequences from other television programs, it soon came to be more of a late night show featuring musical performances—in some ways similar to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

After a boxing match against Regina Halmich in 2001 and a speed skating race against Claudia Pechstein in 2002, he also created several other celebrity sports events that are produced regularly, including TV total Turmspringen (high diving) and TV total Stock Car Crash Challenge (stock car racing). He also brought fun and variety to the show by invented new sports: In November 2003, he initiated the first "official" World Wok racing Championship in Winterberg, Germany. Modified Chinese woks are used to make timed runs down an Olympic bobsled track. The championship took place annually until March 2011, in Innsbruck. The first Autoball EM — Autoball being a version of football played in cars and using an exercise ball to score goals — took place in 2007.