Bert van Leeuwen is lying and not being honest when he says that his low viewing figures do not affect him, says Victor Vlam’s lie detector. “No, I don’t believe him, no. No of course not.”
The success of The Family Dinner is actually the only reason we still see Bert van Leeuwen on television, because all the other things he does? Most people don’t get anything from it. He was recently, or still is, on the air with ‘Soep, Sores en Soelaas’: a social thing for afternoon television that everyone missed.
‘Do we believe Bert?’
Poor Bert has spent so much time on it and it is sad when you are tucked away like that in the afternoon hours. He thinks it’s a shame, but: “I have to say that I am in a phase of my career and life where I am no longer very concerned about that. It’s just a super nice program to make and I’m having enough fun with that.”
Victor Vlam, the infamous media expert from the podcast The Communicados, doesn’t believe a word of that. “It really scores poorly with less than 100,000 viewers. The question is of course: do we believe Bert when he says that the viewing figures don’t matter that much to him?”
‘Of course not!’
Co-host Lars Duursma feels that this is a rhetorical question. “I’m guessing you don’t believe him.”
Victor agrees. “No, I don’t believe him, no. No of course not. No, you hear so many television presenters say this, like: ‘Yes, no, we had a lot of fun making the program, but the viewing figures, yes, no, that doesn’t matter all that much.’ And really, it’s always nonsense.”
“It’s your job!”
Bert is lying, according to Victor. “As a television presenter and as a television maker, it is your job to care about the viewing figures, especially for commercial companies, but also for public broadcasters. It just matters how many people watch it because that means the show either goes on or it doesn’t go on.”
He continues: “And it also means that you either get more opportunities at your broadcaster or perhaps you get fewer opportunities at your broadcaster. It’s just like a politician who has to care about how he does with the voter. Ultimately, a TV maker also has to care about how it scores with television viewers.”
Pinocchio
Bert is a Pinocchio, Victor thinks. “What I find remarkable is that it takes him quite a few words to deny that he doesn’t really care about the ratings, because he really spends a number of sentences explaining that it doesn’t matter. (…) Only on that basis can you also conclude that the opposite is probably true.”
Lars: “Anything longer than no is…”
Victor: “Yes, exactly. Not credible. Not credible at all. The only thing I believe about this is that he feels less pressure to prove himself. (…) But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about the ratings. Because again, it would also be fantastic for him to be bombarded with a record number of viewers. That’s just the honest answer.”