It seems more and more that 2026 will be the year that RTL 4 stops with Good Times Bad Times and the soap moves exclusively to Videoland. What should the channel do at eight o’clock?
For the first time, RTL 4 has not resolutely excluded that Good Times Bad Times will disappear from television. The soap has not been a huge hit for years, but the situation is becoming increasingly painful: every time GTST goes with summer break, the viewing figures of RTL 4 are rising. The replacement, a quiz with Ruben Nicolai, always scores better.
No replacement
If GTST actually moves exclusively to Videoland, what should RTL 4 start broadcasting at eight o’clock in the evening? According to TV critic Victor Vlam, it would be ‘very logical’ to program that Ruben Nicolai-Quiz I know how to program everything about it, but he says in the podcast Victor explains TV: “There is really another option.”
What option is that? “You can also start the prime-time programming of RTL 4 at 8 p.m.. That could well be a solution for the talk show problem they have.”
Half hour earlier
The programs on Prime Time, such as buying without looking, start in that scenario at 8 p.m. instead of 8.30 p.m. The current late programming then starts at 9.30 p.m. “Yes, then you can start Lubach at that time and at 10 p.m. the talk show that is still called RTL Tonight, until 11 p.m.”
Now RTL Tonight sometimes only starts at 10.45 pm. “That is really late. A lot of people are already in bed or no longer feel like watching television, while it is an expensive program to make.”
Not dominant
The reason that Prime Time traditionally starts at 8.30 pm in the Netherlands is the eight -hour news. “But that is much less dominant than it used to be. That no longer attracts 2 million viewers, so the idea that the eight -hour news is decisive for when Prime Time starts, that time is really over.”
Lara Zevenberg, Chef Entertainment from NU.nl, thinks this is a good idea. “It could get RTL out of the viewing figure walk in which they are currently in,” she says in The backbag podcast. “It could help Lubach, because not enough people are still looking at that, and it could help RTL Tonight.”
Loss
Back to Victor: he thinks that the TV viewer GTST will not really miss. “We can really talk about the demise of GTST. It is clearly a program that is on its way and you just see that in how much it is being discussed. When did you hear people talking about a GTST cliffhanger for the last time?”
According to him, it is inevitable. “We no longer build our entire day for a specific program at a specific time, unless it is live and has urgency. So with a talk show we are still willing to do that, but a series of weeks or months ago we prefer to look when it suits us.”