It really seems over and out for Johnny de Mol. His TV child HLF8 will almost certainly not return to TV after the summer, RTL Boulevard knows. His successor? The relatively unknown Manuel Venderbos.
The talk show HLF8 has still two full broadcast weeks. Since the abrupt TV farewell to Johnny de Mol, the talk show has been presented on most evenings by Hélène Hendriks. After those two weeks, Shownieuws will make an early edition, but what happens after the summer? Will HLF8 return then? No, reports RTL Boulevard now.
‘SBS 6 with successor’
Luuk Ikink has fresh inside information about HLF8. “Johnny de Mol has of course stopped presenting HLF8 and since then the fate of the program has been rather uncertain. We now understood that hard work is being done on a successor,” said the presenter in RTL Boulevard.
What do those involved say? “We spoke briefly today with presenter Hélène Hendriks, who replaces Johnny, and according to her, a decision will be made very soon about the future of HLF8. Then we thought: let’s call around a bit.”
Manuel Venderbos
That round of calling was very fruitful. “So it seems that a program is now being set up to replace HLF8, so early in the evening. This also includes a presenter and that would be Manuel Venderbos. He would then present that program or perhaps get a kind of sidekick role.”
Manuel Venderbos? Who is that? He made programs for the EO for years and became discredited for some time when the weekly Privé caught him during a steamy lovemaking with someone other than his own wife. Crime scene? His own car. The act itself could not be seen in Privé, because he had all the towels clamped between the windows.
hot broth
Nowadays Manuel is messing around in the margins. In addition to presenting the AD Mediapodcast, he also does some things behind the scenes. “He also works here,” notes Luuk’s colleague Bridget Maasland.
Luuk: “He used to work here. He is a freelancer. He did some things and still I believe. We spoke to him briefly and then you get a bit of a timid answer. Wait five seconds before answering and then: ‘Yeah, I’m not really sure about it.’”
That says enough, says Luke. “Yeah, of course he’s talking a little bit about the hot mess, so we suspect he knows a little more about that than this. We don’t know exactly what it is yet.”
No plan B
It is of course incredibly painful for Johnny that HLF8 stops and his successor is already ready, because the presenter had wanted to continue with this for years. “After all the travel programmes, it was time for me to take the next step. We are now entering that,” he said at the beginning of March.
“There is no plan B. The ideal, if given it, is to be able to do this for years to come.”