Raymond Mens’ star status is under serious pressure due to his participation in the mega-flop GoedNieuws Today. What is he doing there? “He did not dare to refuse John de Mol.”
Things can move quickly in the television world: you shout in every program that you are worth €200,000 and you languish in the country’s worst-watched news section. You may wonder whether Raymond Mens did the right thing by signing an exclusive contract with Talpa. In the short term it makes a lot of money, but you have to monitor your image.
Sad score
A journalist who only sells good news on television is of course not credible, but that is exactly what is expected of Raymond at GoedNieuws Today. To make matters worse, no dog is watching. “The saddest score is day after day for GoedNieuws Today,” Tina Nijkamp wrote on her today analysis channel.
Hardly anyone is watching: even including delayed viewing, the counter remains stuck at 75 thousand. “It’s still in the schedule, but it doesn’t seem that way because no one is watching and no one is talking about it. It’s also a big dip in programming every day. Phew, what a long wait for everyone involved.”
‘Why?!’
Why on earth does Raymond allow himself to be borrowed for this? Media expert Victor Vlam notices that very few regular Talpa faces participate. “It is made by the boss of Hart van Nederland, so you could well think that Sam Hagens and Merel Ek are involved in it. But that is not the case.”
Noa Vahle, Talpa’s sports reporter and daughter of Linda de Mol, does not participate either. Victor continues in his podcast The Communicados: “I think a lot of Talpa stars simply refused to participate in this.”
To refuse
As a Talpa star, can you simply refuse? “A television contract works in a way that you have a kind of basic contract. You usually get quite a nice amount for that. You can refuse individual jobs, but you will be paid extra for each individual job you take on. So you have one incentive to do it.”
However, the basic salary that most stars receive is already enough, Victor knows. “Well, because you can refuse things, I think you don’t see many Talpa faces here, because many of those people thought: yes, this is just going to be a huge flop, I don’t want to be associated with this.”
‘Does not dare’
As a TV star you can refuse something every now and then, Victor continues. “But the only one who couldn’t do it was of course someone who just worked there, who just got a big contract from John de Mol. I am indeed talking about Raymond Mens.”
Raymond had no choice, he believes. “You just arrive somewhere and of course you can’t immediately say: ‘No, thank you, I’ll skip this one’ when the first project is handed to you by the big boss. Then of course you will not immediately be in good standing with your boss. I think that he indeed could not refuse it and that is why he is the only Talpa star there.”
He concludes: “The only Talpa star who couldn’t refuse it is participating.”