Linda Zervakis leaves the anchor post Tageschau for Future Endeavors
HAMBURG- The Greeks never say farewell without a toast- with the famous Ouzo! On her last day as anchor of the ARD network show Tagesschau and Tagesthemen, it was a toast with many thanks. Linda Zervakis was the anchor for the 8:00pm show Tagesschau for eight years but had worked for German public TV’s arm NDR for almost 20 years. Last night, the „lady in red“ took her last bow with a future that is unknown, except the fact that she plans to take another step into the future unknown, as long as she is still young. And with that, a toast with the Ouzo with her former colleague Ingo Zamparoni, with whom she had worked together for 15 years, beginning with the NDR show „Eins Extra Aktuell“ in 2006. Zamparoni is one of three anchors for Tagesthemen and has written two books on his adventures in the USA.
Zervakis has her roots in Hamburg; she born there to Greek immigrants who moved to Germany in 1960s and had owned a kiosk, where she had worked there until she turned 28 years of age. Her career as a journalist started with being a reporter for NDR’s radio station NJOY before covering stories about Schleswig-Holstein in 2004. Two years later she co-hosted the TV news show Eins Extra Aktuell with Zamparoni. Zervakis joined Tagesschau in 2010 as reporter but took over as one of the five main anchors for the 8:00pm show in 2013. She assisted as a news anchor for Tagesthemen at the same time. That show runs in the late night hours after a movie or show. Zervakis was the first person who hosted the show whose parents were immigrants, a first for ARD but one that also was part of the package. She was a straight-forward anchor who presented no-nonsense news stories and caught the attention of much of the audience. On stage, she was known as the lady in red because of her attire, a mixture of poker colors- red, black and white. Poker-face would be one of the names if we look at it from a card-player’s perspective. Yet off-stage, she had a light-hearted sense of humour. which makes a person wonder: Could she have a future as an actress? From this writer’s perspective, that answer is definitely yes.
Zervakis‘ departure comes four months after Jan Hofer, who had been the anchor for Tagesschau for 35 years. He stepped down in December, but is currently working for the network RTL. Yet her departure doesn’t mean she will disappear, riding off into the sunset. While she has her family and her roots in Hamburg, married with two children, Zervakis will definitely reappear somewhere on the set. She still has her podcast on Spotify entitled Linda Zervakis präsentiert: Gute Deutsche, which was launched last year. Yet what her future holds and what she will do next, no one knows. One thing is for sure, the lady in red will reappear again on stage, no matter where and when she will be.
So have the Ouzo ready. Before that, a big round of thanks for the work you did and for the fans you collected over the years. Best of luck wherever you go. And yes, Rock on! 🙂
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THE FLENSBURG FILES 