Kalvijn is being dealt with harshly for his revelation that he mainly did the SBS 6 megaflop Avastars for the money. “I think it’s super cool. He just wanted to have a TV career!”
Kalvijn’s TV career has been nipped in the bud by the huge flop of his TV debut Avastars. Not a dog watched the SBS 6 show in which extremely old-fashioned looking digital puppets competed against each other in the field of song and dance. And now that it has failed so gigantically, Kalvijn shouts that he did it all mainly for the money.
For the money
Calvin says in the podcast RealTalk that he only wanted to do it when he heard what amounts he could earn with it. “John de Mol pitched it to me. He said, ‘I’m going to make this. Do you want to present it?’ Then I said, “No.” Then he said, “Oh, why not?” Then I said: ‘Well, just because presenting is not my dream.’”
However, John was having none of that. “Then he said: ‘Then you just start presenting a cool program ten or twenty days a year.’ And luckily the budgets of the commercial broadcaster are also worth mentioning, so then I thought: well, I also have to pay for a wedding!”
‘Why?!’
According to SBS 6 presenter Airen Mylene, it explains why Kalvijn said yes to this. “I’ve always wondered, why did he want to do this?” she says in The 538 Afternoon with Frank.
Colleague Frank Dane: “Yes, because of course he goes well on YouTube.”
Sidekick Jelte van der Goot: “There he is mega.”
Airen: “He doesn’t need this, I thought. But now he has indicated that he did it for the money. He said, “Of course I have a wedding to pay for.” I was quite surprised about that.”
Super cowardly
Frank thinks it’s refreshing. “I think it’s fair.”
However, Jelte thinks Kalvijn is a jellyfish. “I think it’s super cool. I think it’s super cool. I think it’s really pretending that you knew it wouldn’t work, like: I did it for the money. What a coward… No, of course he went into it with the idea of: this will be my TV career.”
Large amounts
Frank: “How much money do you think it is, Airen? You are the most experienced TV maker here.”
Airen: “No, I am under such a contract.”
Frank: “But is it hundreds of euros, thousands of euros?”
Jelte: “I hope he is not paid per viewer. Then it didn’t last!”
Airen: “These are large sums. I know that for sure.”
Two to four tons
What is the estimate of Tina Nijkamp, the former channel boss of SBS 6? She writes: “Because Kalvijn has a large fan base and the format also had to become a great international success, the program was launched on a grand scale and everything was done. So I suspect that it concerns tons.”
She continues: “I think between 250,000 and 400,000 euros. Including the Talent Scouts job and therefore also including posts on Instagram etc.”