Paul de Leeuw (63) plays with fire. He was once the A-star of TV entertainment, but now falls into the flooded TV sewer with a whole battalion of reality stars. “The viewer is zapping away en masse.”
The chance that Paul de Leeuw will grow old with dignity on television is becoming increasingly smaller. Paul is getting older in real life – he is now 63 – but in terms of his career he has been at a standstill for twenty years. Ranking the Stars was sharp and villainous television in 2006 with a star cast, but gosh, how this program has deteriorated.
Rating scare
The new Ranking season started last weekend with a very sad cast full of B-group like Sjorleone, someone from the Temptation Island corner. The biggest problem? Paul is no longer above it all, he stands among these influencers and reality leftovers. The viewer feels vicarious shame and so they zap away. Massive.
Those who stand still are overtaken, so only 510,000 people watched Paul’s Ranking on Saturday prime time. “Viewership scare for RTL 4 and Paul de Leeuw, because Ranking the Stars starts very disappointingly. Whew,” writes TV authority Tina Nijkamp on her analysis channel. “That’s about half of what the opening scored last year.”
‘How is that possible?’
Ranking started last year with 994,000 viewers, but now does not go further than seventeenth place in the viewing figures top 25. “Huh? How is that possible? There was almost no competition so this is really disappointing. Ranking the Stars is also if not RTL 4, much more RTL 5 or Videoland only.”
She continues: “This season mainly features reality stars. Furthermore, the format also feels completely wrung out, but I thought that was a good thing last year.”
Jaded
To make matters worse for Paul, Tina also exposes him and his program to her Telegraph column. “It’s wrung-out television. Tired. The introduction of the candidates alone took fifteen minutes. That’s not build-up, that’s wasting time.”
The serious actor Hendrik Jan Bökkers is the odd one out in reality. “For people with a serious profile, Ranking the stars remains a very bad move. Lilian Marijnissen will probably regret it by now. Hendrik Jan Bökkers will probably soon too.”
