Arjen Lubach’s position as the clear late night winner is in jeopardy. Competitor Today Inside attracted 15 thousand more viewers last night. “That’s a bit scary.”
Today Inside has been the most watched talk show in the Netherlands for quite some time now, but on the later evening there is one more successful program: Arjen Lubach’s satirical TV show. Yesterday, however, that was not the case: Today Inside attracted 981 thousand viewers (21 percent market share) to SBS 6, where Arjen had 966 thousand (21 percent).
Scared for Arjen
A minimal but striking difference, says viewing figures scholar Tina Nijkamp. “The most outstanding score of the day is that of Today Inside versus Arjen Lubach. VI has more viewers… Phew, that is exceptional and a bit of a shock for Arjen”, she writes on her ratings juice channel.
According to Tina, Arjen is hindered by a typical NPO ailment: unclear start times. “He has a lot of trouble with very variable starting times. Then again at 10.10 pm, then again at 10.25 pm, and on Tuesday (due to short KVW, among other things) at 9.59 pm. Well, that doesn’t help of course. Poor intake of Civil Affairs is also not an advantage.”
Daily show
Not everyone is enthusiastic about Arjen’s daily show. Some think he had more impact when he could only be seen once a week with Zondag Met Lubach. TV columnist Maaike Bos even dedicated one here at the end of last year column with the headline: ‘Can Arjen Lubach just start making a weekly show again?’
She wrote in Trouw: “Sunday with Lubach was more interesting, wittier and more memorable. But yes, The Evening Show attracts almost an audience of millions. Quantity over quality.”
Record for KVW
The big winner on prime time was the Keuringsdienst van Waarde last night with a record number of 1.2 million viewers (24 percent). Immediately afterwards, Burgerzaken, the biggest NPO 1 flop at the moment, attracted only 493 thousand viewers (11 percent). Arjen Lubach, who came next, therefore suffered a lot from this.
RTL 4 managed to entertain 711 thousand viewers (15 percent) with Kidnapped and SBS 6 came with URK! to 609 thousand viewers (12 percent).
Viewing figures
The viewing figures of Tuesday, March 28, 2023 (SKO):
Top 15 | Market shares (18-24h, 6+) |
|---|---|
| 01. Journal 20:00 (NPO1) 1,945,000 | 01. NPO1 / 22.0% |
| 02. KVW (NPO1) 1,236,000 | 02. RTL4 / 18.0% |
| 03. Half past seven news (RTL4) 1,149,000 | 03. SBS6 / 12.6% |
| 04. Journal 18:00 (NPO1) 1,127,000 | 04. NPO2 / 10.9% |
| 05. EenVandaag (NPO1) 999,000 | 05. NPO3 / 4.6% |
| 06. Today Inside (SBS6) 981,000 | 06. RTL5 / 4.0% |
| 07. The Evening Show with Arjen Lubach (NPO1) 966,000 | 07. RTL8 / 3.3% |
| 08. RTL Boulevard (RTL4) 911.000 | 08. Vero / 3.0% |
| 09. Investigation Requested (NPO2) 848,000 | 09. RTL7 / 2.0% |
| 10. Edition NL (RTL4) 818,000 | 10. Ziggo / 1.5% |
| 11. Good Times Bad Times (RTL4) 816,000 | 11. Paramount / 1.4% |
| 12. Op1 (NPO1) 747,000 | 12. BBC / 1.3% |
| 13. Kidnapped (RTL4) 711,000 | 13. SBS9 / 1.2% |
| 14. Nieuwsuur (NPO2) 699,000 | 14. FOX / 1.0% |
| 15. Six Hours of News (RTL4) 680,000 | 15. Discov / 0.9% |
Market shares per channel group (18-24h, 6+) | More viewing figures at: |
| 01. Public Broadcasting 37.5% |  |
| 02. RTL Netherlands 28.4% | |
| 03. Talpa TV 19.7% |
Programs that did not make the top 15 include Beau (630 thousand), Hart van Nederland (587 thousand), Khalid & Sophie (585 thousand), Tijd voor MAX (509 thousand), Shownieuws (407 thousand) and HLF8 (369 thousand ).