Humberto Tan and Wilfred Genee sat face to face with each other at Renze Klamer’s talk show table last night. Very subtly, the gentlemen there handed out some stabs under water…
It was unthinkable until a few years ago: Humberto Tan and Wilfred Genee appearing in one TV studio at the same time. Tempers between the gentlemen have calmed down for a while, but they will never become great friends. They sat together yesterday at Renze Klamer’s talk show table. One to promote a song, the other a documentary.
Script work
At a certain point, Wilfred subtly informs Renze that he thinks his talk show ‘Renze’, and therefore also Humberto’s similar show, is scriptwork. “I am watching with you and then you have to cover that subject for so long and so many minutes…”
He continues: “Then you get the subject of Humberto, a nice subject, but yes: it is also Videoland, it is also RTL, so there is also a commercial interest and you are watching all the time. Then I think: oh, I couldn’t do that at all. I would find that really difficult. It has to be done according to a script, while: we just do something.”
Straight line
Renze defends himself. He is very proud of his own talk show. “You don’t have to, but you just know: what you do extra with one subject, you have to sacrifice with the next subject, but you do have room.”
Wilfred: “I’m actually presenting as if I’m watching at home with my remote control. Then I think: would he still like it now? Then I think: no, then I have to make Johan angry or seduce René to a nice joke or play one of our guests. I always try to take it a little bit away from the straight line, so to speak.”
What does Humberto say?
Then Humberto is asked for his opinion on Today Inside. He is still regularly mocked on that talk show. “It’s really great what they’ve done. I don’t watch that often, but there’s a lot of surprise in what they do. That’s what you’re describing. That surprise is just very good and very big.”
What does Humberto think of Wilfred’s criticism that the RTL talk shows are ‘middle of the road’? “Look, what we do and what you (Renze, ed.) are doing now and what I am actually doing, is a much firmer pattern and therefore less of a surprise. You have sometimes called us ‘middle of the road’ and that is actually a bit true.”
Humberto states that Today Inside is indeed anything but middle of the road. “You are much more extreme in this and that makes it easier to derail, but that is what people now find very nice and pleasant.”
TikTok feeling
Wilfred says: “It’s a bit of the TikTok feeling. My kids are on that all the time; it all goes so fast and that’s how you try to present. That you think to yourself: something has to be done now.”
Then Humberto in turn remarks subtly that those ‘boring’ talk shows still capture better market shares in the target group: “The funny thing is – that’s a bit of internal bullshit perhaps – that you are much younger in what you do, but the target group is older who looks. And this is actually much older and the target audience is younger watching. That is very crazy.”
Finally, it is Wilfred who defends himself: “The funny thing is: certainly in the last six months you also see that target group becoming broader. There are really a lot of young people who also watch…”