Boris Becker’s first TV interview about his time in jail was £425,000 FLOP

Jailbird Boris Becker’s TV interview was a £425,000 flop – as more people tuned into Germany’s version of The Bidding Room, MailOnline can reveal.

Becker, 55, signed an exclusive deal with broadcaster Sat 1 for access to him and his family for the two and a half hour chat that was broadcast live on Tuesday night.

But despite TV bosses hoping for bumper viewing figures it turned into a dismal performance with just 1.5 million watching (5.8% audience) – around 200,000 more than Navy CIS which is usual broadcast in the same slot.

The strongest TV performance of the night came from a show on rival channel ZDF called Bares Fur Rares – Gemany’s equivalent of the top rated BBC show The Bidding Room hosted by BAFTA nominated actor Nigel Havers.

Three times as many people – just under 4.5 million (15.2% audience) – preferred to watch that compared to three times Wimbledon ace Becker revealing how inmates threatened to kill him twice while serving his jail sentence.

In the show host Horst Lichter – who sports an impressive handlebar moustache – kept viewers captivated as they watched a top offer of £12,000 for a gold Lego brick they had been kept by a man for more than 40 years after being given to his father in 1981 for 25 years’ service with the toy firm.

A German TV insider said:’ The figures are a little disappointing and we would have hoped for more but it’s also Christmas so people are out and about enjoying themselves. Hopefully repeats may get a bigger share and the international market is also interested.’

Becker signed an exclusive deal with broadcaster Sat 1 for access to him and his family for the two and a half hour chat that was broadcast live on Tuesday night

Viewers also hit back at Sat1 via its online platform one said:’ He compared jail to being in a war zone. Please. He has no sympathy from me,’ while another stormed: ’Boris has great acting talent and it’s clear he hasn’t learnt anything. He is a narcissist and I have no sympathy.’

Other blasted him for turning on the water works several times during the broadcast one viewer said: ’Tears? Really? Boris is just as stupid as he was before he went to prison but now he thinks he’s a philosopher.’

While a hard hitting editorial in the respected Leipzig Volkszeitung said: ’The long television interview was a challenge for the audience. On the one hand, because Boris Becker is not a good storyteller. On the other hand, because his overdramatization is too obvious from the start.

‘One accusation that the public has repeatedly made against Boris Becker in recent years is that he has lost touch with reality. Now he is purified and humbled – words that he uses himself. But in the conversation there is little to feel. He says that he experienced hunger for the first time in his life. Yes, he probably went to bed hungry. But he got meals twice a day – unlike people who actually go hungry.’

MailOnline can reveal the interview – which was also recorded in English during a marathon 12 hour session at a Munich TV studio – is being touted to British broadcasters with an eye watering £500,000 price tag.

But when MailOnline contacted the main TV companies in the UK none returned enquiries as to whether they were interested in buying the programme.

In the interview Becker said the inmates tried to kill him for his money and also to make him do his laundry while he was initially at HMP Wandsworth before being moved to the lower Category Huntercombe.

Becker was sentenced in April to two and half years for hiding millions of pounds worth of assets during his bankruptcy proceedings.

He said that being in jail had reformed him and had made him a better person as he revealed he had lost almost 7kg in weight, adding: ’Prison was good for my health, there was no alcohol except home-made schnapps.’

Becker also described how he felt stripped of his celebrity status and said:’ You are nobody in prison. You are just a number and mine was A2923EV. I wasn’t called Boris and no one gives a xxxx who you are.’

A spokesperson for Sat 1 told MailOnline:’The interview with Boris Becker has turned Sat 1 into the talk of the nation – and achieved a net reach (some who tuned in briefly then switched over) of 5.2 million viewers, that’s what we wanted to achieve. That’s why Sat 1 is very satisfied.’