After the removal of The Voice of Holland, Holland’s Got Talent is the most important talent show on Dutch television. But this is also no longer a huge mega hit…
The thirteenth season of Holland’s Got Talent is over. The program was won last night by two people who can dance together very well. They were very happy with the win and couldn’t believe it. After the pre-recorded final, they made a live appearance in Beau van Erven Dorens’ show.
Bad news
The final of Holland’s Got Talent was not a real ratings hit: almost 1.3 million people watched it. No prime time program managed to captivate more viewers. “The bad news?” Tina Nijkamp writes on her ratings juice channel. “It is the worst-watched final on RTL 4 ever.”
Wow, that’s not good news. But it’s not surprising either. Linear television is increasingly under pressure and to keep this under wraps, RTL and Talpa have ensured that the viewing figures remain secret for a week since this season. After that week they get hyped up with postponed scores, but then no one talks about it anymore.
Historically low
The fact that after a week the news value of viewing figures is long gone obviously works both ways. Programs that make a splash and score well also make the news much less often. And so all the urgency is somewhat knocked out of the medium. Less is written about it, people talk about it less and people watch less.
The same thing is now happening to Holland’s Got Talent. “Only when Holland’s Got Talent was broadcast on SBS 6 (2008 and 2009) did the final have even lower figures (1.1 and 1 million),” reports Tina, who knows everything about viewing figures. “Last year more than 1.4 million people watched. The most watched final ever was good for 2.6 million.”
Points of improvement
What could be improved according to Tina? She mentions two areas for improvement. She proposes an intermediate round instead of a ‘short and unbelievable jury deliberation’. It bothers her immensely that the jury decides in a fragment of a few minutes which candidates can go through to the semi-finals.
What else can boost the ratings? If you broadcast the semi-finals and final live, says Tina. “So people can vote at home. The role of the jury is then an advisory role.”
VI out of three
The other most watched titles in prime time were Twee voor Twaalf with almost 1.2 million viewers and Today Inside with more than 1 million viewers.
Today Inside is having an exceptionally good season, but it has also not yet made the headlines due to the secrecy of the viewing figures.