Marcel Reich-Ranicki hosted the television program Das Literarische Quartett from 1988 to 2001 and was known as the Literaturpapst, the pope of literature. On 11 October 2008 he was to receive the German Television Prize for his life’s work. On stage, he refused it. He cited the Blödsinn, den wir hier heute Abend zu sehen bekommen haben, the nonsense we have seen here this evening.