Wendy van Dijk has been demoted from SBS 6 to Net5, but what is the next stop? Her Nigtevecht three-seater sofa? “There is one big problem,” TV authority Tina Nijkamp warns in her column.
It is refreshingly honest that Wendy van Dijk publicly admits that her TV career has indeed fizzled. She makes no secret of the fact that Talpa put her on the reserve bench. After a long time, they have finally given her another job, but not on SBS 6, but the much smaller Net5: the return of So You Think You Can Dance.
Era over
However, Tina Nijkamp, former channel boss of SBS 6, fears that the next stop may be even closer to the ravine, because she does not foresee high viewing figures. “She once presented hit after hit, but that era seems to be over,” she writes in her column The Telegraph.
Wendy’s comeback — she wasn’t on TV for a year — is next Sunday. Will So You Think score in 2026? “The problem? ‘Dance’ on television has been a huge headache for years, such as the gigaflop The Dance Marathon, also with Wendy.”
Headache file
A headache file? Yes, Tina emphasizes. She points to the viewing figures of the similar Project Dance, which started last week with only 424 thousand viewers. “That is bizarrely little for a primetime show on NPO 1.”
According to her, dance shows almost never work because it is difficult to judge at home. “You immediately hear out-of-tune singing, dance is technical and requires explanation. In addition, you build a bond with ‘the voice’ more quickly than with ‘the technique’.”
TikTok
Dance is especially popular on TikTok, according to Tina. “The few TV successes that did exist revolved around well-known faces, such as Dancing with the stars and Dance dance dance.”
However, Wendy’s So You Think You Can Dance is without celebrities and if it does not score, according to Tina, this ‘confirms once again that dance cannot be marketed on television without celebrities’. “For her, this TV comeback will be very exciting in terms of viewing figures.”
