Why does Arjen Lubach hold on to inviting guests if he scores so badly with it? According to MediaCiticus Victor Vlam, there is only one reason for that: “It’s cheap.”
It is perhaps the low point in the TV career of Arjen Lubach: his broadcast last Wednesday in which he commissioned a guest-one Stephanie Louwrier-in a piece of ginger and in a lemon. The two really had the biggest fun with each other and the laughing band worked overtime, but the people at home? Bewilderment.
120 minutes
TV authority Tina Nijkamp has requested the minute analysis and it shows that the Stephanie with d’r lemons has caused a record number of away. It fits in a trend: actually all of Arjen guests take care of many roads, and that has to do with the VPRO-Air that hangs around all those guests. Does not fit with RTL 4.
Why doesn’t Arjen not just dump those guests? “There is a reason why it is quite difficult and that is because that guy is soon easy filling of the broadcasting time,” explains Mediaciticus Victor Vlam in The Communicado’s. “Lubach makes four episodes of thirty minutes a week and that is 120 minutes of television a week.”
Cheap
The guests can be seen on average twice a week and their blocks last on average 10 minutes, says Victor. “So that is a total of 20 minutes. That means that a total of a sixth of the broadcasting time is filled by blocks with guests. And that total of 20 minutes is much easier to produce than producing a comedy block.”
Moreover, they are always comedy guests who have nothing to do with current events. “So you can capture these people in advance, that makes it very easy. You don’t have to see who is in the news every day, who you are going to invite and who does not want and who doesn’t want. No, you can just capture many people at the start of the season.”
One editor
You only have to put one editor on it, says Victor. “But if you scrap the guests, you will delete something that costs very little manpower and then you have to replace it with a comedy block that requires a lot of manpower.”
And that naturally costs a lot more money. However, Co-Host Lars Duursma does not think this is a valid reason. He says: “One of the arguments that was used in the switch to RTL is that more was possible and the editors could become bigger. I think this is no longer such a good argument after the switch to RTL.”
RTL management
According to Victor, the RTL top will not be happy with it either. “I don’t think they are waiting for that at the RTL management. Stephanie Louwrier: I have no idea who that is. It was not a good part, hey, they were going to eat a ginger and a lemon. I thought it was pretty embarrassing to see frankly.”
Richard Groenendijk scored relatively better as a guest, he continues. “So I think the real problem is that they have chosen guests who are far too obscure. Who find Arjen and his team hilarious, but the rest of the world thinks: I don’t necessarily think it’s nice people.”
No Micha
RTL will probably manage on a different guest policy, Victor thinks. And if Arjen wants to get high viewing figures, he will have to comply with it. “I think that will eventually happen. That means that you will eventually see a Tijl Beckand instead of Micha Wertheim.”
“I suspect that they will make that choice. That will probably limit the loss in terms of viewers,” concludes Victor.