It’s crying with the cap on for Patrick Martens: his new TV game Lettrix is a mega flop in the eve of SBS 6. “He makes me nervous. It is completely interchangeable!”
John de Mol has come up with his own variant of Lingo, namely Lettrix. After the poorly viewed premiere on Monday – when 111 thousand people watched (3.8 percent market share) – the second episode managed to entertain only 62 thousand viewers (2.2 percent) last night. This kind of low viewing figures are extremely rare on a major channel like SBS 6.
A little more than Arena
Joost Maiburg, the viewing figure connoisseur of RTL Boulevard, points out that Lettrix scores even worse than SBS 6’s previous megaflop Avastars. “Only 62,000 people watched. Just a little more than a full Johan Cruijff Arena.”
Such a small audience makes it impossible to broadcast this, thinks Joost. “Maybe it’s cheaper to send a DVD to those few viewers. Also an almost uncountable market share of 0.3 percent (!) [in de commerciële doelgroep].”
Incredibly painful
Colleague Tina Nijkamp calls it ‘incredibly painful’. “Patrick Martens had certainly imagined his start at SBS 6 differently, because on the second day his quiz Lettrix only scored 62 thousand viewers. Even worse: 0.6 percent in 25 to 54 years. That’s really close to 0! I’ve never seen this low on a program on SBS 6. Even RTL 8 scores higher.”
This doesn’t look good according to Tina. “With these scores, Lettrix seems to be the biggest TV flop of the year. And then this is also the BN’er version. Big disappointment for Patrick, Dyantha, SBS 6 and John de Mol.”
Nice guest
In any case, it cannot be Patrick’s fault, thinks media journalist Marcus den Blanken of the AD. “I liked Lettrix thanks to him,” he says in the media podcast of the newspaper.
SBS 6 colleague Manuel Venderbos: “Patrick is just a really nice, sympathetic guy.”
And AD journalist Dennis Jansen: “I saw Patrick perform once in Sweden, in Stockholm, in the ABBA museum. It was a kind of karaoke. Top. It can’t go wrong with me either, Patrick. Then some musical came back from Albert Verlinde and then we went on a boat and we were allowed to be there. Then we also went to the ABBA museum.”
‘So exchangeable’
Angela de Jong, the big star of the AD editors, thinks otherwise. “I think everyone in Hilversum likes Patrick so much that he gets all kinds of opportunities because of it, because as a presenter I really think he doesn’t add much.”
Manuel: “Really?”
Angela: “Yes, it is always just one trick and it always makes me very nervous. I find it completely interchangeable with a Jan Versteegh or I don’t know who. Absolutely yes. Yes, I think so.”
Bumbling Patty
Dennis thinks Angela is exaggerating. “Well, I don’t mind him. No. But then again, I don’t watch Koffietijd or programs he presents.”
Finally, Angela points out that Patty Brard made a big blunder as a candidate in the premiere episode. “I thought the beginning was really fantastic. Five letters. Patty Brard had to say a word with a V. And what does Patty say? ‘Fleck’. Five letters huh?”