Tina Nijkamp finds it ‘very sad’ that Paul Römer, better known as Baantjer junior, calls the Televizier-Ring for Today Inside ‘competition distortion’. “His argument is completely illogical.”
Paul Römer, Thijs van Römer’s uncle, left at the beginning of last year as one of the many Talpa bosses. Curiously enough, during his time at John de Mol’s company, he never made it a secret that he has no interest at all with Today Inside and the men involved, and he maintains that now that he has long since left SBS 6.
Devaluation
It is shameful that the VI trio has won the Golden Televizier Ring for the second time, says Paul. “I offer my condolences to AvroTros for the downgrade of the Televizier-Ring. Once it was the price of the viewer, now it is the price of the person who best mobilizes the viewer,” he sneers in a column at Speaking tube.
“That started with Jan Smit, who called on the audience to text during his performances in party rooms and thus won a Ring for a completely average program. Later there were commercials and other promotions. But now we see a two-hour live broadcast on SBS in addition to the gala to put the competition behind.”
Competition fixing
Of course, no one can compete with that, says Paul. “As far as I’m concerned, that borders on distortion of competition. The price of prizes has thus been devalued, and that is an eternal shame.”
“In the past, before the internet and text messaging era, readers of the Televizier/AVRO-bode had to send in receipts with their favorite program. Rumor had it that Joop van den Ende bought up all the guides in the single sale to send in receipts for his programs en masse. Also a bit of cheating, but still more sympathetic.”
‘Very sour!’
TV authority Tina Nijkamp, one of VI’s regular guests, is bothered by Paul’s argument. “What an EXTREMELY sour reaction. Ehhh dear Paul, until when do you want to go back when you thought it was fair? Until 1975? Because well. It has always been the majority vote, even in the postcard era.”
She continues: “And Frans Bauer in 2004 and Jan Smit in 2005 won fairly? When they called on their fans to call and text?”
‘Totally illogical’
That Paul has no idea what he’s doing, says Tina. “Paul finds Joop van den Ende’s action sympathetic. Totally illogical in his argument. How is that sympathetic? Because it was done by the great Joop van den Ende?”
“Long story short: I also wrote it in my Telegraaf column: when a ‘popular’ program wins with a large permanent fan base, there are always people who say: ‘Not fair!’. When a docuseries or drama series wins, these kinds of discussions never take place. Then suddenly it is ‘fair’.”