It is one of Peter van der Vorst’s biggest blunders as RTL boss: to get it in the house and just afterwards dumping Matthijs van Nieuwkerk again. Has he not just escaped a disaster?
Matthijs van Nieuwkerk is hiding quite a bit nowadays; He limits his activities to small activities in the country. How different would that have been if he had actually made his comeback at RTL last year, as planned. It went Spaak: TV boss Peter van der Vorst received fierce criticism of his eager cuddling with the DWDD-Tiran.
‘Don’t want to lie’
The victims of DWDD were furious that Matthijs was so hoisted on the shield by Peter and threatened to leak stressful information. It all went wrong and Peter went back in that lucrative RTL contract. “We should have wait,” he said about it last week de Volkskrant.
With Matthijs’s contracting at all or by bringing the news out, the newspaper asked him. Peter: “Bringing it out. We did that because we wanted to be transparent. It sang around everywhere, actually the news was already on the street. And I just don’t like lying. “
Opportunism
Why didn’t Peter just wait for the report to the abuses? “We received signals, also from the committee, that the report would not be about Matthijs at all. Moreover, other parties were also busy bringing him in, at the NPO, and I think elsewhere. ”
“The fact is, and we have admitted that we were too fast. Also because Matthijs said: I just don’t pull this, I can’t return, under this star. Call it opportunism. I hate it, but I think we have been too opportunistic in this case. “
Escapes from disaster
Mediacriticus Victor Vlam thinks RTL has escaped a disaster. “When you think of image, you should actually think of: what is the first thing you think about when you think of Matthijs? (…) Nowadays that is of course complete and totally turned. If you think of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, you think of Tiran, “he says in ADs Mock.
In addition to that ruined image, he doesn’t understand what Peter wanted with Matthijs anyway. “He seems really a terrible person to be one of your employees. It’s such a very difficult man. It is someone who has fear of flying, it is also a hypochondriac, it is also someone who does not dare to go on the highway because he finds it too scary. ”
Crazy traits
Tiring to death, says Victor. “It’s a man who just has so many crazy traits. It would go crazy if he worked for me! If he delivers, if he attracts two million viewers: no problem, I would accept all those traits. But for 400 thousand viewers, that we must have that crazy man? I wouldn’t pull it. “
We also have to stop that fuss around Matthijs, he continues. “I don’t think it is unfair that he has left a lot of reputation damage to this and that he may never be able to return to the main stage. I personally don’t feel much sorry for Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. “
Get worse me
Matthijs must accept that it is over and out, Victor concludes. “Someone like Jan Slagter … Yes, I am annoyed by the fact that he is not doing anything else all the time than just saying that the man has to come back. Then I think: Potdomme, Jan, think of those victims! ”
TV connoisseur Rob Goossens thinks that Matthijs can still return to Jan Slagter’s broadcaster. “The target group of Omroep Max is still in the nursing home with Alzheimer’s. He has long forgotten that those things were in the Volkskrant! ”