Can someone pick up Bert van Leeuwen in his limousine? His program The Family Dinner is expected in the TV graveyard. “After 23 years, it is unfortunately over.”
According to ratings authority Tina Nijkamp, it is over for the TV classic Het Familiediner. Bert van Leeuwen’s program returned last night for a new season on NPO 1, the most watched TV channel in the country. The result? Sad. The entire top of the EO has not had a bite to eat all day.
TV exit after 23 years
Tina speaks of ‘a real ratings drama’. 523 thousand people watched The Family Dinner, good for only 6 percent market share in the commercial target group. “So it was a total flop. He couldn’t have wished for a better influx, but 600,000 viewers ran away after The Story of the Netherlands,” she says in her podcast Tina’s TV Update.
It will now be over with this show, according to Tina. “The previous series no longer scored very well. I don’t understand why they started doing this again. It is also on my list of programs that I think should disappear in 2024. After these figures it will probably not come back anyway and that will take time.”
‘Why at NPO?’
Tina doesn’t think this program suits the NPO at all. “I am also surprised that the NPO has ordered this program again. This program has been around for 23 years and at some point it will be finished, right? The Regret Me on RTL 4 has also not been running for a long time. Why do family disputes still have to be fought out on television?”
She continues: “It’s a very different time. There was no social media back then, and it was very difficult for people to get in touch with each other. Now it is very different. To then start fighting out family disputes on the NPO… I don’t understand why that is the job of the public broadcaster.”