It has become a tradition at Shownieuws: a few times a year the show section starts to shout that something great is coming from John de Mol. Yesterday it was that time again.
In recent years, Shownieuws has mainly functioned as a mouthpiece and advertising column for John de Mol. Every once in a while the experts behind the desk start shouting that their great leader has come up with something genius again. For example, they announced De Dansmarathon and Million Dollar Island as a kind of new wonder of the world.
North Korean
The painful thing is that all those new ‘great’ shows by John de Mol flop over and over again. And yet Shownieuws started screaming again yesterday as a kind of North Korean state channel that something fantastic has rolled out of John’s format section. What is his latest format called? A Year Of Your Life†
A Year Of Your Life is a kind of Big Brother, but with forty candidates who have to play games. They have to try to stay in the house for a year and the winner has a chance to win a maximum of one million euros. Doesn’t sound very groundbreaking, but at Shownieuws they were almost next to their stool yesterday.
‘Bizarre, intense!’
Evert Sanwaarden, John’s gossip boy, is just chatting with his ears. “It will be the longest game show of all time. We now have one on Friday evening that lasts an hour and a half and then you would think: maybe it will take two and a half hours? No, this one lasts a year!!!!!! That’s why it’s called A Year Of Your Life.”
What a format, according to the Private boss. “It’s very bizarre. It’s very intense. It will be one of the biggest new programs that Talpa has announced for the foreseeable future.”
New experiment
That John does it every time, says Evert. “It will be sensational. It is, however, a new experiment from the same stable where such experiments were discovered. It changes your life and if you come out of it, the world around you has already changed. It will of course continue in that year.”
Tooske Ragas doesn’t know what she’s hearing either. “So! I am also very curious! Watching will be great!”
Tina Nijkamp
What does Tina Nijkamp, former channel boss of SBS 6, say? “John de Mol has turned his format box over again and look what comes out…”, she says cynically.
She seems to find it all very easy going. “Already curious about the next Million Dollar format combined with back to basics…”