Peter van der Vorst really made a terrible blunder in the Matthijs van Nieuwkerk case. Is his job at risk, as Victor Vlam suggests? “No! Absolutely not.”
The television boss of RTL, Peter van der Vorst, has completely disappointed Angela de Jong with his short-lived attempt to keep Matthijs van Nieuwkerk in check. Only after pressure from outside did he decide to postpone Matthijs’ comeback for a while; All his programs have been canceled for the time being.
Big miss
Bridget Maasland states that Peter has caused image damage to their company RTL; This whole fiasco will cost the channel group a lot of money anyway. According to media critic Victor Vlam, this has put his job in jeopardy: “Maybe Van der Vorst was too eager. That could cost him his job.”
Viewing authority Tina Nijkamp, who used to be the channel boss of SBS 6, does not agree with this. “No! Absolutely not, certainly not,” she interjects Weekend. “This is too small for that. I know from my own experience: as a program director you make two hundred decisions a day, and this was a big mistake.”
Intervened on time
Tina believes that despite his infamous weekend of doubts, Peter did not wait too long before putting Matthijs on hold. “He intervened in time and admitted his mistake. That is it. I find it strange that it is now about Peter. Why isn’t it about all those executives at the NPO?”
Take a look at a Gerard Timmer, says Tina. “An NOS director who wants to change everything in such a report? Peter intervened anyway and said: ‘We’re quitting.’ He couldn’t do anything else, from a business point of view. It was far too big a risk for RTL as a company. It is absolutely not something to be proud of.”
Been too eager
As a former channel boss of SBS 6, does Tina have any advice for Peter? “If I were Peter, I would just keep going. I would see this as a mistake, Peter has been too eager. But in the end, RTL will not be worse off in terms of viewing figures if Matthijs is no longer going ahead at the moment.”
Is RTL wise to get rid of Matthijs completely now? “If it turns out that Matthijs is innocent, I would give him a Videoland series. You have made agreements, you must deal with them decently. I don’t think you can now say, ‘Nice way to get rid of him.’ I would find that indecent, from Peter’s point of view.”