Despite new concept: SRF no longer wants to know about the Miss pageant

Guido Fluri, under whom Miss Switzerland was transformed into an overall charitable product, has sold the brand to Angela Fuchs, Iwan Meyer and Andrea Meyer. As Switzerland wants to know at the weekend, "well over half a million francs" are said to have flowed in the process.

The three new owners told the newspaper that more than 1,000 young women had already applied for the upcoming election - and that they were in talks with several TV stations.

Which broadcaster is guaranteed not to be among the interviewees: SRF. SRF spokeswoman Eva Wismer told Schweiz am Wochenende that a new entry is not an issue, as the content is "a typical program for a Swiss private television station. The reason for SRG's exit in 2011 was the declining viewer interest in the former ratings guarantor (Werbewoche.ch reported). In 2001, more than a million people tuned in to the election, and in the following years, too, the number of viewers was well over 800,000 on five occasions.

Fluri's success away from the public eye

After SRF went out of business, Guido Fluri, a real estate multimillionaire from Zug, took over the brand and for years put a lot of money into the project of making Miss Switzerland a permanent charitable ambassador. Although this did not increase public interest in the brand, which was so powerful in the nineties and noughties, Fluri nevertheless put his vision into practice with some success. Over the past two years, for example, the organization and its ambassadors have been able to save the lives of numerous children through donation-financed heart operations.

However, the election has not been broadcast on television since 2016, because Fluri had had enough of the "superficial" live broadcasts that were aired with mediocre ratings on Sat.1 Switzerland following SRF's exit from the market (Werbewoche.ch reported). And Fluri could not find common ground with 3+ boss Dominik Kaiser. What Kaiser envisioned as a successful pageant production had little to do with Fluri's vision. In addition, Kaiser wanted the sponsorship money for himself - a financial no-go from the point of view of the former brand owner. (Werbewoche.ch reported).

"Away from the total do-gooder image".

Kaiser, who is obviously interested in working with the Miss Switzerland organization, could now get back into the game. Because after Fluri's withdrawal and SRF's unchanged disinterest, the door is wide open for an attempt to help the Misses regain their former glory according to Kaiser's vision. If the 3+ founder has his way, the entire concept must be consistently geared to the medium of television and "thought of as a TV format." Kaiser wants "real people to touch," drama and emotion. He couldn't do anything with Fluri's "unapproachable do-gooders.

This is entirely to the taste of the new co-owner Angela Fuchs. They want to "get away from the total do-gooder image," she tells Schweiz am Wochenende. Above all, Miss Switzerland should be a brand ambassador. The fact that this intention is "very well received," according to Meyer, comes as little surprise.

So it's quite possible that the Miss Switzerland brand will be associated with the 3+ station group in the future and will increase in value again. Because Kaiser has long since proven that he knows how reality TV works, with numerous formats and steadily rising ratings. (hae)