Dennis van der Geest responds to the strong criticism that Johan Derksen has expressed on him. He shrugs. “I can have a lot from him”, says the former judoka.
The 46-year-old former judoka Dennis van der Geest currently presents programs on SBS 6. He is currently on the channel with the poorly viewed survival show Million Dollar Island. Johan Derksen once accused him of wanting to be on TV after his judo career. What does Dennis think about that?
Not bothered by
Dennis responds in the Panorama: “I know him a bit, we were once in one of those daily RTL programs. We measure each other with a big wink, so I can trust him a lot. It doesn’t bother me that much.”
In general, Dennis thinks people shouldn’t be so judgmental. “I have done top sport. When I read what was written about me when I lost in the Olympics: like I was some sort of serial killer. With social media, it’s even worse these days.”
Destroy
The circus in which celebrities lash out at each other is not for Dennis. “I just don’t like it when people try to destroy each other. That’s not my style either. I have trouble with the ease with which it is now.”
He points to the new show media. “So much content has to be created that you do the journalistic hearing in one piece, and the opposite in another. With the thought: then you have two instead of one piece. I don’t think that’s very neat. I also don’t get it very well: how far should those juice channels go?”
cesspool
Dennis denounces the juice channels. “At some point the cesspool is open and you have made your point, or am I wrong? It’s like going back in time, to the market square where we put someone down to throw a few stones at his resin.”