Our Christmas holiday is cancelled, I texted my best friend when I read that the holiday park of the friendly Peter Gillis in Ommel in Brabant is closing. He didn’t answer immediately and I concluded that the blow had hit my friend hard. That turned out to be a mistake. He hadn’t had time to respond alertly because he was busy processing a much bigger blow: On 1 stops it. This announcement hit the broadcasting world like a bombshell. Four-work bomb? That’s what it’s called nowadays.
The presenters and editors of the cracking talk show were especially angry because they had to read their dismissal in the newspaper. There had not been a cheerful management joker from the NPO who had called the crowd together to tell them that the plug was being pulled. How jerky can you be as a management?
Sven Kockelmann and Fidan Ekiz opened the broadcast on Thursday evening with a right to be furious and said that they had even considered not broadcasting. But they thought that was too harsh a measure. Ultimately they were there for us and then the loyal viewer would be hit too hard. So a sense of duty. Patriotism.
I wondered whether it would have been bad for the viewer if they had missed an evening. I was still mentally recovering from the almost twenty-minute interview with a number of assistant Santa Clauses a few days earlier. Regular guest and political commentator Thomas van Groningen made a humorous contribution by measuring the talk show table with a tape measure. That thing could serve as a dining table at his home.
I wondered if Thomas’s comment was wise. I don’t think that sweet boy needs a dining table. More like a ping-pong table to get some exercise. Or is this fat shaming?
“Yes,” said my best friend, who immediately wondered if On 1 was also the talk show where I fell asleep this year. “Not as a viewer, but as a guest,” he laughed and this was indeed true. I was the third closing guest that evening and Tijs van den Brink had to wake me up after a number of sleep-inducing naughty topics.
But it’s going to stop and Khalid & Sophie will take over the daily hour. That duo will be replaced by Eva again in the early evening. The talk show world is most reminiscent of the Kitchen Cabinet Division. Every year at the start of the new season, all trainers have moved up one club.
Matthijs is now going to RTL. Yet another death blow for the NPO, which should have simply taken him back last year after a tough conversation. Yesterday morning, Martin van Rijn immediately wondered why RTL did not wait for the outcome of its investigation into the abuses at the NPO. The answer is simple: Matthijs only has one life and cannot wait until St. Jutte’s Mass. Because then Martin hopes to have his report ready.
Isn’t that the same Martin van Rijn who, as a minister, once approved the controversial Sywert deal? Yes, that’s that Martin. Would he know how our Sywert is doing now? And with his buddies Bernd and Camille? Is this trio still ‘screaming rich’ or has the stolen money been parked somewhere safely by the judiciary? All the money? Or does Sywert still have an account on some shady Virgin Island after a tip from Wopke?
Last week the slob tweeted on X that he was looking for a second-hand Nintendo Switch for his son. For Sinterklaas. He had a lot of quality requirements and he absolutely did not want to be ripped off. Sywert doesn’t like that.
Isn’t this a wonderful topic for a talk show? Delivered with a bit of humor. And preferably at the NPO and presented by Matthijs.
Someone recently told me that Wilders wants to close down the NPO. But Geert doesn’t have to do that. Why not? Because the NPO can do that very well itself.
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