Cherno Jobatey - "Germany’s most entertaining alarm clock", as recently described in the conservative newspaper FAZ (04/05/06).

Cherno Jobatey has "shaped ZDF- Morning News with his irrepressible zest" as states Germany's people magazine BUNTE (24/06). "His winning smile has long been part of the show", cheers Cologne Paper „Express". "No one is quite as entertaining" adds Germany's tv guide Hoer Zu (No 45/05).

But his easy going sense of humour early in the morning is not liked by everybody. It just so happened that the German Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection simply didn't know an appropriate answer to a question that was put with the winning smile and very affable manner of his host, the "news junkie" (Welt) Cherno Jobatey. It was a question about Germany's recent food scandal when rotten meat was sold in parts of the country. Minister Seehofer just couldn’t explain the reasoning behing his ministry's guidelines and regulations.

Cherno Jobatey is the „TV-Darling”! states Europe’s biggest tabloid Bild (09/09/07) He explains world event at dawn on the small screen in Germany's No. One morning news show "ZDF-Morgenmagazin". The show is broadcasted live directly from Berlin’s political heart, close to Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. Because that’s where the political action is.

Life Story

Pony tail, sneakers and a winning smile: that can only be Cherno Jobatey.

He has become a brand name on television, convincingly matching form and content.
First and foremost, Cherno is an expert in news and current affairs.

But he also knows how to present entertainment shows, is a secure interviewer on any topic and always knows how to get that feel-good mood across.

Germany’s “Early Morning Breakfast Director” has got it made - and the road to success has been surprisingly straight forward for this television expert.

Born and raised in Berlin he is the third-born in a family of six. Growing up without a father in a two and a half bed-room apartment, life made him a fighter early on: He only got pocket money, when he earned it. So Cherno held a variety of jobs: bicycle repair, flower delivery and working as a waiter. He soon learned that to achieve his goals he’d have to work harder than the rest.

Cherno studied political science at the Free University Berlin. He supported himself by giving guitar lessons, working as an interpreter and translator and spending many nights as a DJ. As a guitar player for the “Groove Gangster Inc.” he learned how to make himself comfortable on stage and how to connect with an audience. He once performed as warm-up act for German rock star Herbert Grönemeyer.

A News junkie at heart, Cherno can’t abandon his dream to become a journalist. His life seems to follow its own master plan: strange coincidences, chance encounters and a lot of chutzpah got him to where he had dreamt to be.
In his fourth semester he was winning a German Academic Exchange Service grant to study in LA for a year. In the US, he presents a talk on Jesse Jackson, which the Berlin-based RIAS radio station hears about. Word gets that he is an expert on American domestic affairs. Cherno seizes the opportunity and starts producing freelance broadcasts for German radio.

Michael Jackson performed in Berlin. It just so happened that one of Cherno’s guitar teachers from LA is a member of Jackson’s band and who helps him into the inner circle of the reclusive star, while a pack of renowned journalists is kept waiting for the shy superstar.

Cordt Schnibben from the weekly DIE ZEIT is among the waiting media people. A conversation with Schnibben leads to new opportunities to contribute freelance articles for DIE ZEIT and DER SPIEGEL magazine.

All of this brings a lot of prestige but earns little money. Cherno also learns the tough facts about daily life in a TV station, making photo copies for the hourly wage of what is at that time 9 Marks and 80 Pfennig three times a week. But he realizes it’s a foot in the door and soon he is contributing parts to the local evening news “Abendschau”. Then, in the early nineties, he gets a break prompting iconic German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to make a personal statement that catches everyone’s attention. At the Berlin Press ball, Cherno asks the chancellor about his favourite dance. Kohl replies: “The tango”. When faced with the chuckling reporter, stoutly-built Kohl famously makes an indignant statement: “I dance only to get close to women.”

A year later Cherno gets his first jobs as a TV Presenter:

It all starts with a little disaster and very much as a last minute call. The show “Berlin - Heute Abend” is about to begin and all of the anchors are either ill or for various reasons unavailable. Cherno jokingly offers himself. He gets the job - and keeps it.

But once you are on the air...

Cherno went nationwide hosting the game show “Kopfball” (header) on ARD network, anchoring regional news in Berlin and Brandenburg, and the youth show “Voll Drauf” (roughly translates as: really cool). He gets infected with the “entertainment bug” when he presents the Variety show “2 VOR 12” at the International Broadcast and Television Fair in Berlin 91.

In 1992 he is a member of the original anchor teams of the Breakfast TV news show “Morgenmagazin”. In a very short amount of time he becomes the trade mark of the show. The show wins top viewer ratings. “Morgenmagazin” continues to be highly successful and Cherno is still a crucial part of it today.

But every now and then the “Morning-Guy” moonlights, because he loves to work late:

Two seasons Cherno hosted the daytime game show “Memory”. It was followed by five years presenting a TV Classic, the German Candid Camera Show “Verstehen Sie Spaß”. In the late Nineties he started the talk show “Cherno” which lasted four years.

As a host, MC and moderator Cherno is working Germany’s “Event Circuit” in German as well as in English.
And five to eight times a year his “axe”, his guitar, calls and he plays with his Band “Groove Gangster GmbH” in Clubs and bigger venues.

Cherno was born with dyslexia, but he loves to write: He is still contributing articles to: Wirtschaftswoche (German Business week), Cosmopolitan, Die Welt, AZ Munich and others. When his slimming (he lost 43 kilos) created a public gossip in Germany he even wrote a book, sharing his secrets.

But Cherno never forgot his roots and is continuously engaged in Charity events and Community services

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