Renze Klamer’s TV career is at stake. He has to wonder whether RTL is still the right employer for him, because boss Peter van der Vorst is destroying his TV future. “Another low point.”
Renze Klamer seemed like a hot potato at RTL for a while: he was by far the channel’s most popular talk show host, and he seemed to have a great future ahead of him. Channel boss Peter van der Vorst thought very differently about this. He took Renze’s name off the wall and let him join RTL Tonight together with his less popular colleagues.
Renze on the line
Unfortunately for everyone involved, RTL Tonight is a mega flop and the viewing figures under Renze’s leadership are currently even lower than those of Humberto Tan. Painfully, current affairs TV is accurate at the moment hot because of the approaching elections, but Renze and his RTL Tonight are simply not relevant during the current battle.
We now hear Renze chatting with Olcay Gulsen about Victoria Beckham, while competitors Pauw & De Wit and Today Inside are relevant and controversial. Incredibly painful and of course damaging to Renze’s career: the longer he is out – because that is the actual situation – the greater the damage.
Record low
Viewing authority Tina Nijkamp reports a new low record: 249 thousand viewers, good for a 10.9 percent market share in the commercial target group. The previous low record was last Wednesday with 257 thousand viewers. With these kinds of scores, the program is simply not that attractive to potential guests.
She writes on her analysis channel: “The 249 thousand of RTL Tonight is a very poor score. Especially because it was hardly related to football (due to the start time of 10:44 p.m.). Lubach recorded 556 thousand viewers and 15.5 percent.”
To persevere
Tina sympathizes with Renze. “How long can Renze keep this up? That’s what I thought when I watched RTL Tonight. With items such as a documentary about Victoria Beckham and Olcay about it, the cable ‘news’ from Wiesje, Olcay versus Frits
Putting Barend in charge of any discussion. It is really a completely different story for Renze than his own talk show.”
She continues: “It may be just me, but you can also see from his face that on some ‘light’ topics he thinks: why do I have to discuss this?”
Lots of duplication
There is also a lot of duplication with RTL Boulevard, says Tina. The subject of Victoria Beckham, for example, was also included. “A whole item with Olcay Gulsen, of all people, who will talk about it. Then I think: Victoria Beckham is way too Randstad for the Netherlands, isn’t anyone in the province interested in her?”
She continues in her podcast Tina’s TV Update: “Everyone knows her there as a Spice Girl and as the wife of David Beckham, but that whole fashion brand… Who buys anything from her? They are only rich people who can afford that. I think it is a strange choice for a talk show.”
Not coercive
RTL Tonight makes blunder after blunder, according to Tina. “I just don’t understand it very well. I also think they do way too many superficial topics.”
She continues: “A lot of royal family too, but to repeat what Jeroen Snel does at half past six at Boulevard with Josine Droogendijk, for example about the clothing display of the Oranjes, yes, I don’t think people will stay awake for that and it is compelling enough. (…) The viewing figures are also shocking.”
Albert already gone
Albert Verlinde seems to have already taken his leave or is quietly phasing out his activities. He would be at the desk two to three times a week, but recently had been absent for a week and a half and now hasn’t been back since Sunday.
Tina concludes: “Why isn’t Albert there (again)? He was there for the last time last Sunday. Olcay instead of Albert. Strange!”