Arjen Lubach does not want to move to the formerly prestigious 7 p.m. slot of NPO 1. In addition, the talk show host also responds to Catherine Keyl’s sneer.
It’s over for Arjen Lubach: the first four weeks of his new daily talk show ‘The Evening Show with Arjen Lubach’ are a fact. Because he finds it all very intense and heavy, the presenter has the next week off. After that, he finishes the last five weeks of the first season.
Arjen vs Catherine
Typically the wimpy generation, Catherine Keyl sneered The Telegraph: “I can imagine that it is exhausting for him. On the other hand: I did it for fifteen years and that didn’t score badly either. I sometimes think that we sometimes have to deal with a wimpy generation.”
Arjen reacted yesterday to that sneer at the table of the talk show Op1. “I saw that De Telegraaf had an entire article about the ‘wimpy mentality’ of the current generation, but it was just a plan that I could sleep for a week and then continue again,” he defends.
Already planned
It has nothing to do with acute fatigue, but just planning, says Arjen. “It was already planned. We already said last year: it’s such a labour-intensive thing, and we couldn’t see whether we would last very long.”
“Then I suggested: couldn’t we just take a break for a week, so that we can see how things are going and whether it can be sustained for at least one season? That was immediately settled. (…) Maybe I could have continued.”
Not on Sundays anymore
Arjen really likes making daily TV. He doesn’t like a return to Sunday with Lubach. “I wouldn’t go back to the week. It’s grueling, but it’s also the best job in the world. It gives me less stress, because normally I slept very badly because I was busy all week with: oh, it’s going to be a crappy Sunday.”
He continues: “On Wednesday I thought: we don’t have anything yet. On Thursday I thought: we have some, but it’s bad. I now have this during the day and then it is on TV in the evening and I go to sleep.”
1.2 million people
Critics argue that his daily talk show is less relevant than Zondag met Lubach. “That doesn’t bother me. If 1.2 million people want to end their day every night laughing at my jokes about the news…”
And what does he think of the criticism that his program is very similar to an American talk show? “It’s funny because sometimes people criticize, ‘Yeah, but that’s just a copy of one of those American latenight shows.’ Then I say, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly the point. That’s what I wanted.’”
Not to 7 pm
There were recently rumors that Arjen would move to 7 p.m., to become the definitive successor of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk after the debacles of M and Khalid & Sophie. “That isn’t an advantage at all compared to our time slot, is it? I don’t really understand why that is seen as a win.”
“The seven o’clock lock was once created by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk who had devised a talk show on NPO 3, which became successful and dragged it to 1 and then it suddenly became the holy eve. That was never the sacred talk show slot or anything, it was made by De Wereld Draait Door and that is now not matched by those other shows.”