The television comedy traditionally broadcast on New Year's Eve in Germany is Dinner for One.
The short black-and-white sketch follows Miss Sophie as she celebrates her 90th birthday with a formal dinner. Her butler, James, serves courses for four absent guests and gradually imitates each guest's drinking, creating the sketch's central comic routine.
Although the actors and original production are British, the program became an unusually strong New Year's Eve tradition in German-speaking countries after German television broadcasts. The phrase “same procedure as every year” became closely associated with the annual viewing ritual.
A frequent misconception is that Dinner for One is a major British New Year's Eve tradition. It is far more culturally prominent on German television, where it has been rebroadcast for decades.