Friend and enemy agree: the SBS 6 debate produced by Jeroen Pauw had a great influence on the election results. How did he arrange that TV debate? “Through Sam Hagens.”
Jeroen Pauw left a significant mark on the election campaign with the TV debate he produced on SBS 6, especially because Frans Timmermans was severely attacked by a sympathizer of Geert Wilders. The PVV leader did manage to satisfy her. One problem: her PVV preference was not mentioned anywhere.
The son of
Jeroen has come under fierce criticism, even at the table with his pupil Khalid Kasem – although he questioned his mentor with the handbrake on. Anyway: who actually enabled Jeroen to produce that debate? Doesn’t John de Mol produce almost everything himself on SBS 6? How did he get involved?
Well, via VI star Sam Hagens, the TV maker reveals in a podcast Villamedia. “I want to tell you how it’s going. Sam Hagens, and to a lesser extent Merel Ek, but especially Sam Hagens, I have known him for some time. I also worked with that when we produced HLF8. Nice boy, the son of.”
Make proposal
Sam is the son of EenVandaag star Pieter Jan Hagens. “Of course I also sometimes talk to him about his father, because I know his father. So I talked to Sam and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to do something more than just cover the elections?’”
And then? “Then we were having a bit of a conversation and then I said: you know what, I’m going to make a proposal. So then I made a proposal. I will then make a proposal. He likes that proposal too. I say: ‘Well, then I’ll go and see if Marco Louwerens likes that. Then Marco says: ‘Well, I’m going to discuss that.’”
Have mercy
A few weeks later, Jeroen was already sitting at the table with the Talpa leadership. “In this case it was also with the editor-in-chief of Hart van Nederland. Well, then there’s a producer. So that’s not me. A producer of TVBV (the TV company founded by Jeroen, ed.). He will then talk about: who will do what and how much will it cost? And all that kind of stuff.”
Jeroen’s role was modest, he emphasizes. “I said: ‘I’m going to take care of the two, Sam and Merel. They can come to me if they want to take another look: how can we approach all this with a bit of focus?’ That’s how it goes.”
Khalid & Sophie
Jeroen’s influence was even greater, because he was also allowed to join Khalid & Sophie as an analyst in the run-up to the elections. How did that come about again?
Well, that was a bit of a consolation prize according to Jeroen. He actually wanted to make a TV debate that he presented for the broadcaster. “Only BNNVARA did not receive that.”