Hotel Cæsar is a Norwegian soap opera that aired on TV 2 from 24 October 1998 until 14 December 2017. From the start in 1998, the show was broadcast Monday to Friday, except during the autumn of 2006, where the show was broadcast Monday to Thursday only, and from 2010 until 15 December 2016, the show was again broadcast Monday to Thursday on TV 2. From 2 January 2017, the show started being broadcast online only, through TV 2's web player TV 2 Sumo. The show was cancelled later in 2017, and the last episode was published on TV 2 Sumo 14 December 2017. It was created by Swedish duo Peter Emanuel Falck and Christian Wikander. The show consists of a total of 3,123 episodes, making it the longest running drama in television in Scandinavia. Hotel Cæsar is the second longest running drama in television in the Nordics after Finnish soap opera Salatut elämät (1999–).
Plot
The storylines are centered around a fictional hotel in Oslo, its employees, and the Anker-Hansen family. CEO and widower Georg Anker-Hansen (Toralv Maurstad) was one of the central figures in the series, and his romance with escort girl Ninni Krogstad (Henriette Lien) was the main story. After Georg died of incurable pancreatic cancer, Ninni inherited the entire corporation, leading to major conflicts with Georg's dominating mother, Astrid (Sossen Krohg), and his children, Juni (Anette Hoff), Jens August (Kim Kolstad), and Julie (Elin Sogn).
The series was mostly inspired by the history of Janni Spies, who married the much older Danish tourism king Simon Spies and inherited millions when he died. It gave the idea to hotel owner Georg Anker-Hansen and escort girl Ninni Krogstad.
Georg's daughter Juni, due to her alcoholism, was also a central character in the beginning and received great attention in Norwegian media. The show gained even more attention when half-siblings Jens-August (Kim Kolstad) and Charlotte Iversen (Kristin Frogner) began a relationship without knowing that they were siblings.
Later, the series focused on controversial topics such as racism, kidnapping, rape, abortion, trafficking, drugs, pyromania, homosexuality, murder, and more.
In episode No. 1000 of the series, which aired in autumn 2004, Toralv Maurstad made a guest appearance as Georg in some of the characters' dreams.
In January 2006, the series changed its genre and appeared as a more innovative and modern soap with more action, humor, sex, violence, and drama. The show received massive media publicity due to its controversial content and early prime time. However, after the sudden change, viewing rates decreased, and as of January 2007, the show gradually returned to its old style.
Years later, it was discovered that Georg's deceased wife, Ingeborg Anker-Hansen, had an affair with Harald Hilldring, which resulted in the birth of Julie Anker-Hansen, who was the artist and outsider of the family. Julie learned about this through her mother's diaries. She also claimed that Georg was responsible for her mother's illness and, among her siblings, was the one who had the smallest problem opposing her family's opinions.
At the start of the series, Jens August came out of prison after serving time for killing a young man who was driving under the influence of alcohol. He also had a past with his father's new girlfriend, Ninni, and their relationship was always tense.