Kidnapped girl hosts TV chat show

(CNN) -- Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager who was held prisoner for eight years in a basement, will have her own television chat show, her media adviser confirmed to CNN Thursday.

The 19-year-old made headlines around the world after she escaped from a subterranean bunker below the house of Wolfgang Priklopil in a suburb of Vienna 16 months ago.

Her captor killed himself by throwing himself under a train only hours after she fled.

Kampusch will be hosting a show on the Austrian television station Puls 4, Wolfgang Brunner, her adviser said.

A pilot episode of the show has already been filmed and the first episodes are expected to air some time in February, Christina Patzl, a spokeswoman for Puls 4, told CNN.

At Kampusch's request the first guest on the show will be Peter Huemer, a well-known presenter for the Austrian radio network V1, Patzl said. The teenager chose Huemer because she regularly listened to his show during her captivity, she said.

Kampusch was only 10 years old when she was kidnapped on her way to school in March 1998.

For most of her ordeal she was kept in a tiny underground dungeon by Priklopil. After her dramatic escape she emerged pale and ghostly white.

In the last 16 months, Kampusch has been transformed into a media personality, appearing on television shows around the world. On her new Web site, launched in association with the television station, studio photos of the teenager sit alongside a short video in which she personally welcomes visitors to the site.

Interest in Kampusch has been intense. The teenager is thought to have been flooded with book and film offers for her story.

Patzl said it was Kampusch who came up with the format for the show, in which she will conduct one-to-one interviews. She said careful consideration was being given to the teenager's mental well-being and the program makers were in constant contact with her therapists throughout the filming process.

She said Kampusch is getting extensive television coaching ahead of the program launch. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Arnim Staudt contributed to this report

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