Edson da Graça is seen by the management of RTL 4 as one of the biggest TV promises in the Netherlands, but is that actually justified? “No, this is the IKEA of the TV judges!”
Talent shows are still a very important genre on Dutch television. The jury is of course essential in this type of program, but, says format developer Kirsten Jan van Nieuwenhuijzen in the podcast Content Wars: “I think that in the Netherlands a problem with many talent shows is that the jury is just not very good.”
Edson vs. Gordon
Jelle Maasbach, the presenter of this TV podcast, then gives Edson a big sneer. “I find that with DNA Singers, by the way. Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, I have often said, is always very good. But Edson… He’s kind of the IKEA of the judges, you know. Neither meat nor fish. Those two together are not necessarily very much…”
Kirsten Jan adds: “Yes, that is difficult. You have to have a judge who can show different sides of himself. Who can sail fast, maybe also a little soft. Gordon was – of course everyone is a bit negative about him these days – a juror who could really add something. He was a really good judge.”
Sympathetic boy
Gordon ‘always had something to say that people liked’, says Kirsten Jan. “Yes, so it is always a search. I know Edson is of course kind of brought up as a possible new star for years to come. I think he is a very sympathetic boy and I also think that it can become something.”
But, he continues: “The question is indeed: is he ready to participate in such a talent show? I do think that you really need outspoken people. I would like Maxim Hartman much more in the jury. They don’t dare to do that, they don’t think so family and things like that.”
disrupts
In any case, it is better than the boring IKEA da Graça, Jelle snarls. “You have to have someone who stings a little, disrupts a little.”
Especially with a program like Holland’s Got Talent, Kirsten Jan says: “Yes, you have to have someone who can shout something you don’t expect.”
Content Wars
The Content Wars podcast: