Evert Santegoeds gives a big sneer to Kirsten Jan van Nieuwenhuijzen, one of John de Mol’s most prominent critics. “That guy himself has been on the decline for twenty years!”
Kirsten Jan van Nieuwenhuijzen started his career as one of the first four creatives by John de Mol and is still active as a format developer today. Among other things, he created the game show That’s The Question and more recently delivered the TV idea Singletown, which was shown with us on discovery+.
Greek tragedy
In addition to his TV work, Kirsten Jan also has a podcast, in which he discusses all the ins and outs of TV, called Content Wars. In this he regularly discusses the downfall of John de Mol, who has just had one of the biggest flops in his career: Avastars. It is by no means the only flop that John has delivered recently.
Did Kirsten Jan expect John to be such a big deal in flops these days? “No, I didn’t expect that,” he says in the penultimate episode of Content Wars. “We’re going to talk about him because it’s kind of a Greek tragedy, isn’t it, after four decades of very successful television.”
Collapsing Empire
After a decade of start-up, John de Mol has had two golden decades, but in the last decade he has been on the rise again according to Kirsten Jan. “In 2010 you had The Voice, which is his very last hit. In the last decade you can see the gradual collapse of his empire. The last three years are perhaps the worst years.”
Even with all the family troubles surrounding it, Kirsten Jan emphasizes. “What just happened? How can things go so well for twenty years and then completely collapse in recent years? It seems at the moment that he is not quite right anymore feeling has for what the viewer wants.”
67 years old
John has no idea what the common people are waiting for, he believes. “Perhaps that is not so strange if you have been a billionaire for twenty years and are somewhat outside society. You see that with more very rich people. They may no longer understand very well what is going on with the common man.”
Kirsten Jan also points out that John is already 67 years old and that he may just be a bit on the wane. “At a certain point you can wonder if it might be a bit over.”
Ever fierce
Evert Santegoeds, who, like colleague Johan Derksen, jumps into the breach for their employer John, is angry about the persistent criticism of the Talpa boss. “I think the criticism is playing on that man. Again: he does it with his own money and he doesn’t bother anyone with it and if you don’t look, you don’t look.”
He continues in his podcast Strictly Private: “I think that dancing on Avastars’ grave is really out of all proportion. Yes, it doesn’t appeal to me. I was confident that it would work out in the beginning, but when I saw the result it was a bit disappointing.”
‘On his way back himself!’
Isn’t it logical that people criticize such a mega flop as Avastars? “Yes, but then all people from the past crawl out from under a rock: Fons van Westerloo and that format creator who always has to emphasize that he was one of John’s first four format creators”, Evert grumbles.
So he is referring to Kirsten Jan here. “And he says: ‘John may be on his way back at 67.’ Well, I don’t think the guy is 67 yet, but he’s been on the decline for twenty years. He is the last person to say anything about it!”