Kampusch to host her own TV chat show
By Rachel Shields
Published: 07 December 2007

Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian girl imprisoned for eight years after being kidnapped on her way to school, is to host her own TV chat show. The show with the working title Natascha Kampusch in Conversation With... is set to be screened on a privately owned channel in Austria.

Ms Kampusch, now 19, hit the headlines last year, after escaping from a cellar where she had been kept by Wolfgang Priklopil, an IT technician. He committed suicide later the same day, throwing himself under a train during a police chase. Ms Kampusch gave several high-profile media appearances in the aftermath of her ordeal, in which she spoke of her desire to work in the media.

Her show is to be screened on the Puls 4 channel. Ms Kampusch has her own website, "Natascha's World", and has engaged the services of a media adviser.

Ms Kampusch, who was 10 when she was kidnapped in Vienna in March 1998, gave an interview, published in the weekly magazine News on Wednesday, in which she explained the move. "For a while now I have been considering the idea of coming out of the role of a passive media object and becoming proactive in creating media content," she said.

She said she hopes that the 30-minute shows will see her interviewing a range of people. "They could be famous people, but also very ordinary ones – just anyone who has a story to tell really," she said. "I don't want to just skim the surface in these conversations, I want to go deeper."

Ms Kampusch has spent the past year undergoing a program of intensive psychotherapy and schooling.






anyone else find that a bit odd? i can understand she wants to move on with her life, but i dunno

This whole story belongs in Southland Tales.

The bit about "getting on with her life" is a bit disingenuous, if that's what she's thinking. Would she be handed her own chat show if it hadn't been for what happened to her?

a bit odd? it's fucking insane.

i remember, even in her first tv interview [which, btw, happened too soon after the whole thing], she was saying things like:

“I will perhaps write a book about myself, or perhaps not, but I don’t want anyone to pretend to be an expert about my life. And I do want to be an actress, but I’m not thinking Hollywood. My mum always told me that when I grow up I’ll be on the Burg.”

that sounds really immature. so i'm guessing she needs to continue with her psychotherapy, not host a tv show.

haah well im glad i aint the only one who thinks it's a bit fucked up