Rudi Cerne’s Rise from Figure Skating Champion to Host of “Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst”

Rudi Cerne, born in Wanne‑Eickel in 1958, was a leading German figure‑skater in the 1970s and 80s, winning national titles in 1978 and 1980, a silver medal at the 1984 European Championships and finishing fourth at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics. After ending his athletic career he moved into broadcasting, first as a freelance reporter for WDR and HR covering skating events, then as a sports presenter for ARD and later for ZDF, where he hosted shows such as the Aktuelles Sportstudio and the Tour de France coverage.

Since 2002 Cerne has been the face of ZDF’s long‑running true‑crime programme “Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst”. The show reaches about five million viewers per episode and, according to the broadcaster, has helped solve roughly 39 % of the 5,000 cases featured to date. Production takes place at the Bavaria Filmstudios in the Munich suburb of Grünwald, where a crew of directors, camera operators, lighting technicians and editors rehearse the live broadcast for several hours before going on air.