Jan Slagter (70), the boss of Omroep MAX, is not interested in succeeding Johan Derksen (75) if he stops at Today Inside. “Well, no. I don’t think so. Honestly, no.”
They are among the most conservative men on Dutch television: Jan Slagter and Johan Derksen. Although Johan has just signed another two-year contract with VI, we all know that he will be 78 (!) when his contract expires. If he does achieve that, at some point you will reach an age where it will become more difficult to make daily TV.
Same angle
Jan will be 73 when that moment comes and could sit next to Wilfred Genee and René van der Gijp for a few more years in Today Inside. Has he ever thought about that and would he even be interested in it?
Media critic Victor Vlam asks Jan about it in a radio broadcast NPO Radio 1. “Do you have the ambition… Suppose that in 2.5 years Johan Derksen says: ‘I’m quitting’, and they end up with you at SBS 6… You are of course somewhat in the same corner. Would you then say, ‘I would consider that’?”
Jan doesn’t want to
It seems that Jan is not interested in that. “Well, no. I don’t think so. Honestly no. No, no. I often appear in talk shows and that often has to do with the time in which we were staying at the time, namely the cancellation of a number of presenters that I stood up for. That was often the reason why I was there, but no…
“I am now 70 and will be 71 in March. There is still a lot of work to be done, especially where we have to fight together for a strong public broadcaster, to get that 50 million off the table.”
Massacre
Jan has called those cuts to public broadcasting a ‘bloodbath’ and ‘torture’; really exaggerated. “Oh yes, okay, well, maybe I should have used different words, but you will notice that when the 50 million is added to the 100 million, you will notice it in the programs. Then people will miss that.”
Tomorrow is the day: Today Inside will return to the air after Hélène Hendriks has done the honors for a few weeks. It will be the first year of VI in which René van der Gijp will make his appearance not five but four days a week. Albert Verlinde will be in his chair on Wednesdays — that will generate a lot of headlines.