Bridget Maasland has violated her own employer’s viewing ban. She opened RTL Boulevard yesterday with the viewing figures from the night before. “Yvon scores poorly!”
The bosses of NPO, RTL and Talpa have put their heads together and in an attempt to silence critical media they have imposed a viewing ban. Since this season, the scores from the night before are no longer publicly accessible. They are only published sometime after a week, when the news value has worn off.
Viewing ban
Only the TVincrowd still has the viewing figures from the night before and ratings hooligan Tina Nijkamp publishes the highlights on its analytics channel. For example, it became big news yesterday that Boerzoekt Vrouw achieved historically poor viewing figures the evening before. From AD to NRC: it was mentioned everywhere, despite the viewing ban.
The AD wrote about it: “This newspaper published the linear viewing figures for Sunday evening based on multiple sources. Officially, the viewing figures will not be published until next week by the National Media Research, which takes delayed viewing into account. The total may then be higher than 1.3 million.”
Bridget is in trouble
Even RTL Boulevard does not care about the viewing ban, despite the fact that RTL is one of the initiators of that ban. Presenter Bridget Maasland opened the broadcast yesterday with the ratings news about Boer Wants a Woman: “The first episode of Boer Wants a Woman causes quite a stir in the ratings world.”
Bridget proves that the ratings ban is a wash: a ratings flop simply has news value. “Millions fewer people watched yesterday than before. Yvon Jaspers suddenly seems to have lost her magical ratings mojo.”
Dating TV overload
Luuk Ikink speculates happily. “Is it dating TV overload?”
Rating expert Tina Nijkamp: “Yes, I think it might be a bit too close to B&B Vol Liefde. We were very addicted to that this summer. We all watched that. Maybe it’s a little too close. The competition was also fierce with Miljoenenjacht and Expeditie Robinson.”
Bridget to Aran Bade: “How do you explain that economical start?”
Declining popularity
Show expert Aran thinks that Farmer Seeks Woman has passed its peak. “I do think that the popularity of Boerzoekt Vrouw is declining. You can also see this in the number of letters that people have sent to farmers. That is lower than ever. This is a final blow.”
He continues: “I think Yvon Jaspers choked on her bowl of farmer’s yoghurt this morning, because 3.7 million is the average number that Boerzoekt Vrouw is used to. I think we are a bit tired of dating and the farmers are also not very comfortable with current events. It will be a very difficult season.”
‘Not sustainable’
Joost Maiburg, editor of RTL Boulevard, writes on his analysis channel Check Viewing Figures: “It’s striking that more and more media simply write about yesterday’s viewing figures 👏🏻. The current situation is simply untenable.”
That statement is endorsed by Tina.