Since 2003, Maischberger has been moderating the talk show "maischberger. die woche" on "Das Erste". In 2009, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany, she interviewed Chancellor Angela Merkel. Alongside Maybrit Illner, Peter Kloeppel and Claus Strunz, Maischberger later moderated the only TV election debate between Merkel and her competitor Martin Schulz ahead of the 2017 elections, which was aired live on four of Germany's most-watched television channels during prime-time. In her talk show, she has also interviewed international guests, including Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis of Greece (2016), Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria (2018) former President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (2020) and Bill Gates (2021).