Hélène Hendriks is at loggerheads with the channel top of SBS 6. She was not allowed to present her own talk show De Oranjezondag yesterday. “I told her to call John de Mol.”
It was quite a surprise last night: we did not see Hélène Hendriks, but Thomas van Groningen at the head of the table in De Oranjezondag. It was hardly made clear why the regular presenter of the talk show could not be present. “Hélène has the evening off, she has other things to do,” Thomas simply said.
“That’s what Thomas does!”
It turns out: Hélène did indeed have the evening off, but against her wishes. “Hélène was discovered by Talpa as the ideal showbiz woman for those big shows, right, and she is now presenting such a very big show. It will then be recorded in parts. She was supposed to record a piece on Sunday evening and that was canceled,” says Johan Derksen.
He continues in the podcast Greetings from Grolloo: “Then she called the channel manager and said: ‘I can just do De Oranjezondag’, but then the channel manager said: ‘No, Thomas van Groningen already does that.’”
‘Don’t take it!’
Hélène was really in shock that channel boss Tom Roedolf kept her away from her own program, according to Johan. “Yes, Hélène was really a bit pissed off about that, because he says: ‘It’s my show and that Thomas is on News of the Day and on Today Inside every day and now he’s doing my show again, but I’m the host of that show!’”
“She didn’t understand it and we didn’t understand it either, but she’s not tough enough to say to such a man: ‘Hey, wait a minute, this is my program and I’m presenting that program!’”
‘Call John de Mol!’
Johan thinks it is an insane decision by Tom, who has now been in charge of SBS 6 for a year. “She also fits that program much better than Van Groningen. I told her: ‘You should just call De Mol if you don’t like it’, but she didn’t do that and yes, then you won’t achieve anything.”
“There are a lot of owners floating around under De Mol and they also have their own ego and they sometimes want to make decisions of course, but you have to resist that. You shouldn’t let men at the TV fool you. The people at home want Hélène and they don’t want Van Groningen, because Hélène is part of that program.”
Long in substance
According to Johan, it is also important that SBS 6 guards against Thomas van Groningen overkill. “Thomas is starting to believe in himself a little. He becomes a joker, very long in substance. The questions and introductions are often longer than the answer.”
He concludes: “Thomas has to be careful. He is now sitting everywhere and he is becoming a bit too poppy and that will work against you. He is a great talent. He does well everywhere we use him for, but he has a bit of a tendency to go too far.”
