TV corona star Diederik Gommers was on the talk show Op1 one more time yesterday, this time to introduce his successor as IC chairman. “Can you do without attention?” Sven Kockelmann asked.
Diederik Gommers was still a welcome guest in talk shows at the start of the corona crisis, but at a certain point he started to cause annoyance in more and more people. In particular, his apparent urge to appear continuously on television earned him criticism.
Thirty times Diederik
The talk show Op1 yesterday showed a compilation of all the times Diederik appeared at the talk show table of that program. Yesterday it was exactly his thirtieth performance at Op1. “This is number thirty. It’ll be a bit over after tonight, isn’t it? Can Diederik Gommers do without attention, in all honesty?”, asked Sven Kockelmann.
Diederik then said: “Yes, of course. I did this to explain the profession, to provide insight about the virus and about medical science. That is an incredibly nice thing to do, but you have to have a message. I don’t have to be on TV if I don’t have a message.”
Successor not on TV
His successor Iwan van der Horst does not want to appear on TV as often as Diederik. Iwan: “Yes, after two years you hope that it will be handled in a different way and that we don’t have to tell you as much about it from the IC.”
“I think Diederik has done really well and that it is now time to talk more about the medium term. That may be less news, but just as much contributing to things going better.”
Fragment
Diederik in Op1: