BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - There were several special features in the news of the major private stations on Monday. While the new news umbrella brand "Newstime" was launched at Sat.1, ProSieben and Kabel eins, sports presenter Monica Lierhaus (53) was "live in the TV studio again for the first time in 14 years" at RTL, according to the private broadcaster in Koln. "RTL Aktuell" from a quarter to seven was the most-watched program on RTL on Monday - an average of 2.62 million (17.0 percent market share) watched.

"Welcome to RTL Aktuell. We'll have sports in a moment, and I'm especially happy about that: with Monica Lierhaus." With these words, Charlotte Maihoff greeted viewers at 6:45 p.m. At 6:57 p.m., it was Lierhaus' turn. She is still dealing with the consequences of a brain operation in 2009, after which she spent months in a coma. Lierhaus has been an RTL reporter since April. For her, it's a return to free TV after years at subscription channel Sky.

Since Monday, the newscasts on Sat.1, ProSieben and Kabel eins are now uniformly called "Newstime." "The launch of our own newsroom and the launch of the umbrella brand ":newstime" will be followed by the move to a new newsroom and one of the most modern news studios in Europe by the end of the year," the ProSiebenSat.1 subsidiary Seven.One Entertainment Group said.

The first "Newstime" on Sat.1 (previously "Sat.1 Nachrichten") at 7:55 p.m. was watched by 790,000 viewers (3.7 percent).

In primetime, starting at 8:15 p.m., ZDF was ahead of the pack: 5.51 million (24.6 percent) watched the crime thriller "Ein Mädchen wird vermisst," with Heino Ferch as investigator Ingo Thiel.

The ARD nature documentary "Zimmer frei? - Die Baukunst der Woodpeckers" reached 1.97 million (8.9 percent) from 8:15 p.m. on. After that, 1.86 million (8.5 percent from 9 p.m.) stayed tuned for the last edition before the summer break of "Hart aber fair" with Louis Klamroth (topic: "The Rammstein case and the question: Men, are you really not further along?").

The crime thriller "Inspector Barnaby" on ZDFneo was watched by 1.49 million (6.6 percent), the show "The Wheel - Das abgedrehte Promi-Quiz" on RTL by an average of 1.11 million (5.0 percent), the action thriller "Safe House" on Kabel eins by 1.05 million (4.9 percent), the docu-soap "Bella Italia - Camping auf Deutsch" on RTLzwei by 800,000 (3.7 percent), and the series "Grey's Anatomy - Die jungen Ärzte" on ProSieben 620,000 (2.8 percent), and the action quiz rerun "Die Gegenteilshow" on Sat.1 with Daniel Boschmann around 450,000 (2.2 percent)./gth/DP/tih