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Schmidt was host of the German late night show Harald Schmidt Show ("HSS"), comparable to Late Night with Conan O'Brien or David Letterman's Late Night. The show featured stand-up comedy as well as famous national and international guests.

The self-proclaimed hypochondriac is popular for his cynical jokes and intellectual wit. He models himself after people like Johnny Carson and Conan O'Brien, but adds important factors and qualities to his show that neither of these models has. He engages in long, seemingly boring conversations with his editor in chief Manuel Andrack, who sits at a desk next to Schmidt's, and, like Letterman, also includes his staff into the show - for instance, his band leader Helmut Zerlett or his cue card girl Suzana.

Especially in the first years of the HSS, Schmidt has sometimes been criticised for making fun of minorities like foreigners or gays. However, a constant number of viewers approved the show, making it a sort of cult television. In its later years, the show became a critics' favourite due to Schmidt's intellectual sense of humour. For example, he hosted one show completely in French; on another occasion, the screen was blacked for half of the show making it a "radio broadcast"; or he disproved a critic who had written that it is impossible to spend several minutes on TV just cracking nuts.

Awards include the viewers choice award Bambi, the Grimme Award, the Golden Camera and the Golden Lion as best showmaster.

Biography

Schmidt was born in Neu-Ulm , Germany, and spent his youth in Nürtingen, where he went to grammar school. He committed time to the Catholic church, became choirmaster and played the organ.

At the age of 21, he went to Stuttgart to attend drama school, where he stayed for three years. After that, Schmidt gained on-stage experience at the Städtische Bühne Augsburg; his first role was that of the 2nd Mamaluke in Lessing's Nathan the Wise. In 1984, he became a text write for the cabaret Kom(m)ödchen in DüsseldorfDusseldorf is the capital city of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 571,000 Dusseldorf is one of the largest cities in the Rhineland region and the ninth largest in Germany. Vital statistics Name: Dusseldorf Country:, and two years later, in 1986, Schmidt was honoured as "Best Newcomer cabaret artist" and toured through Germany with his own show.

It did not take long before TV noticed the talented young comedian, and in 1988, Schmidt began to host his first TV show MAZ ab. Shows like Psst! and Schmidteinander followed, but the biggest boost to his career occurred in 1992, when he became host of the popular Saturday night show called Verstehen Sie Spaß? ( Candid CameraCandid Camera is a long-running television series, created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially appeared on radio as Candid Microphone in the 1940s, then screened in the United States in the 1950s, with local versions produced around the world. format), which features people being filmed with hidden cameras in embarrassing and funny situations. At this time Schmidt was awarded the most important German TV award, the Grimme Award , but it would not be his last one - only one year later, he was honoured as "Entertainer of the year" and awarded the famous Bambi and the Golden Camera .

In 1995, Schmidt took another important step in his career when he changed from the TV station ARDThe Arbeitsgemeinschaft der offentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("Cooperative association of public-law broadcasting institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany"), or simply ARD was founded in West Germany in 1950 t (under public law) to the privately-owned channel Sat 1. In December, he started his own Harald Schmidt Show, a late night show. It was not the first time that such a late night show was shown in German TV. Thomas Koschwitz hosted one a few years earlier.

From June 30, 2003 the show would be broadcast five days a week, including Monday evening.

On December 8, 2003, the end of the show was suddenly announced by Schmidt, following a change of management of Sat 1. The last show aired on December 23, 2003.

Since mid-2004, Schmidt is touring through Germany with a new caberet programme, featuring Manuel Andrack.

Harald Schmidt lives in CologneThe article about perfume can be found at Eau de Cologne. Cologne ( German: Koln [ˈkœln]) (population 965,954 as of December 31, 2003), is the fourth largest city in Germany and largest city of the North Rhine-Westphalia state. It is one of with his girlfriend and two children.