RTL boss Peter van der Vorst has been accused of being a hypocrite for some time, but Videoland chief Barry Schneider certainly has a sign for his head. His motto? Be sweetbut not right now!
Talpa boss John de Mol has been reviled by the stars of RTL Boulevard for keeping camping villain Peter Gillis on the air, but about the dirt you don’t hear them in your own home. You may wonder what is actually worse: hoisting someone who is not quite right into the saddle or stirring up feelings of hatred among a mass audience.
Revenue model
The latter is of course what RTL is doing. With programs such as Expeditie Robinson and De Verraders, the channel explicitly focuses on television where betraying the other is the highest achievable, and of course they hope to stir up emotions in their mass audience. Arguing and swearing as a revenue model.
If that scores, as a commercial party you would of course be crazy not to do it, but then you might wonder whether you should educate people on how to behave. ‘Stop hating, start loving, be sweet’, the management team, including Peter van der Vorst, always shouts in unison. Really laughable.
Hypocrisy
The height of hypocrisy is that RTL now broadcasts a hate show led by Soundos El Ahmadi on Videoland that really goes beyond all limits: in House of Villains we hear vulgar C-stars fighting with each other, in which the swear word ‘k*nker’ is used very often. Why is RTL inciting the masses at home so much?
An interviewer from Veronica Super guide Videoland boss Barry Schneider explains this very carefully. He cannot get away with excuses, but despite asking questions from the interviewer on duty, he does not change his mind. In fact, this bobo appears to have quite a large plate in front of his head. Well, let’s say a 24-piece tableware set.
Hateful
When asked how that raunchy House of Villains fits in with the Be Sweet motto, Barry answers: “Do you think what you see here is hateful? I don’t think so. Look, the ‘Be Sweet’ campaign was aimed at making online hate comments open for discussion. So how people are destroyed on social media.”
He continues: “Presenters or participants who are in our programs, as we now see with Expedition Robinson, sometimes have to deal with this.”
Yeah, crazy, huh? The cause lies on the editing table.
Foul language
When it is pointed out to Barry that there is a lot of bad language on that Soundos show, he says: “But that’s kind of it, I think. If you and I have a fight, we might talk to each other differently. But these kinds of candidates will increase it.”
Then isn’t it at odds with that campaign? “No, because it is a game. The most crude swear words have been edited out.”
Snippets
What nonsense that man is spouting. Superguide rightly explains to him: “You can also put your hand into your own bosom and think: how do we as RTL and Videoland contribute to the hate reactions with, for example, the programs we make, how they are edited and which snippets are placed online.”
Barry: “You can look at it in any way, of course. But we already live in a time, so to speak, where there is already a lot of criticism of woke, non-woke and whatever. (…) We make programs for all target groups and there is a large group that enjoys these types of reality programs in which they clash and chafe.”
Wink
TV authority Tina Nijkamp doesn’t understand it at all. She writes on her analysis channel cynical: “Phrases in a trailer such as ‘I’ll knock the f***ing teeth out of your f*cking mouth’ and ‘f*nkerh**r’ should be seen with a wink. Ah. So that is typical Videoland thinking. According to Barry, this doesn’t hurt to look at, such statements.”
Telegraaf reporter Jordi Versteegden also thinks it is hypocritical. He agrees Show news: “RTL has a patent on making these types of programs such as De Verraders, Vals Spel and Expedition Robinson. Yes, that provokes reactions and they are responsible for the editing. Before it is broadcast, about fifteen people watch it.”
Rumor
It is simply about getting attention, says Story boss Guido den Aantrekker. “They want noise around the brand. Formally they say it’s terrible, but you can’t imagine that no one is talking about your program, right?”
Is that correct? Barry confesses in the Superguide: “Look, any form of attention is good for a program. Good or bad.”