After the huge success of the daily summer show B&B Vol Liefde, RTL 4 now also comes with a winter version. The big question is: will it work? “Snow just doesn’t score on television.”
It is very lucky for RTL 4 that the daily summer show B&B Vol Liefde is such a success. For example, the TV channel only needs to program one program at prime time during the lukewarm summer months, which saves a lot of money. The great success is now also leading to a winter variant, which will be used next autumn.
Swiss ski resort
The spin-off is called Winter Vol Liefde and one of the candidates has already been announced, namely 26-year-old Benjamin, who will soon take over a boutique hotel in the Swiss ski area. Interested gentlemen can already register. The other candidates will be announced later.
But will this all work? Tina Nijkamp, viewing figures prophet and former channel boss of SBS 6, has a hard head. “Winter Full of Love. Fun. Hopefully not just images with snow,” she writes on her analysis channel.
‘Snow does not score’
A winter version of B&B Vol Love without snow? Why? “Remarkably enough, programs in the snow almost always score a lot worse than programs that were filmed in the sun and without snow. Always wondered why.”
What reasons can Tina come up with? “Perhaps 1) because we hardly ever have snow in the Netherlands, 2) it feels very included, 3) people can always be seen in ski suits and 4) because the picture looks a lot duller in terms of colors?”
Overkill
Hans Anonymous, a commenter on NU.nl, points to the danger of overkill. “For example, I haven’t watched First Dates for a very long time. The surprise was gone. If Farmer Searches Woman comes twice a year, for example with a Dutch and a cross-border version, I also drop out.”
B&B Vol Liefde is fun once a year, he thinks. “Like Married At First Sight. But I don’t need to see that twice. However, if RTL gets extra advertising revenue because of this, they will probably do it. In the short term, this will yield success, but in the longer term, viewers will no longer watch both editions.”
‘Looks great’
Fellow commenter Edmin disagrees. “Fun! Contrary to many negative comments below, I’m going to sit down for this. It looks wonderfully away, just thinking at zero and watching how others try to find love. By the way, I am not the only one ;-).”
Marie Claire thinks that RTL should make more effort to recruit candidates who participate in the fame to fish out. “It would be nice if RTL screened the candidates properly.”
