Wait for Me (TV program)

Wait for Me (Russian: Жди меня, romanized: Zhdi menya) is an international telecast, talk show and also a popular public search service. It appeared on Russian television since March 14, 1998. It was originally broadcast on Russia-1 (1998), before being broadcast on ORT (since 2002 on Channel One Russia) (1999–2017) and currently is being broadcast on NTV. Wait for Me is also a TEFI TV Award winner (2018).^[1]

Original title

The production of the program is handled by the television company VIDgital.^[2] The authors of idea were journalists Oksana Naychuk and Victoria El-Mualla.^[3]

In the first years of the program's existence, it was possible to find 15-20 people each month with its help,^[4] and in 10 years about 150 thousand people were found.^[5] By October 2017, their number had increased to 200 thousand.^[6]

Since 2005, VID has begun production of Wait for Me for viewing in other countries. Since then, the program has come out in an international format.^[7][8]

Also, from October 2000 to 2004 a newspaper was published with the same name.^[9]

Presenters

• Oksana Naychuk (1998)
• Igor Kvasha (1998–2012)^[10]
• Maria Shukshina (1999–2014)
• Sergei Nikonenko (2000, 2008)
• Chulpan Khamatova (2005–2006)
• Aleksandr Domogarov (2005)
• Mikhail Yefremov (2009–2014)
• Egor Beroev (2014)
• Aleksandr Galibin (2014–2017)^[2]
• Ksenia Alfyorova (2014–2017)^[2]
• Sergei Shakurov (2017–2018)
• Julia Vysotskaya (2017–2018)
• Grigory Sergeev (2017–2018)
• Aleksandr Lazarev Jr. (since 2018)
• Tatyana Arntgolts (since 2018)
• Alyona Babenko (since 2023)^[11]