In the German-speaking world, the television comedy traditionally broadcast on New Year's Eve is Dinner for One.
Dinner for One is a short English-language stage sketch recorded for German television in 1963. Freddie Frinton plays the butler James, who serves a formal dinner to Miss Sophie while pretending that her four absent guests are present. As he drinks each guest's toast, his movements become increasingly unsteady.
The sketch became a New Year's Eve institution in Germany and several other European countries, despite being far less famous in the United Kingdom, where it was not originally a major seasonal tradition. Its recurring line, “The same procedure as every year,” became widely recognizable.
The program is sometimes mistaken for a German production because of its enormous German-speaking audience. The performers and dialogue are British, and the original sketch came from English-language theatre.