There are quite a few jobs at risk in the Hilversum stable of stars, because TV channels are making less and less studio entertainment. Wendy van Dijk has been sitting on her couch looking bored for a while, but she is not the only one…
NPO 1, RTL 4 and SBS 6 were wholesalers of large studio shows for years, but that came to an abrupt end. Even showpiece The Voice of Holland will soon return without live shows. Why? Because current talk shows and reality TV are now more popular with the viewer and are much cheaper to make.
Wendy bored
That’s why Wendy van Dijk has been sitting on her Nigtevecht couch for ages, completely bored: she has no more TV jobs, nothing in the pipeline and she admits that. “It’s a lot live, of course. The Oranjezomer, talk shows. A lot live. So for the time being it’s acting and dancing.”
But Wendy is far from the only victim of this shift in the TV world, TV authority Tina Nijkamp emphasizes in her column in The Telegraph.
Biggest victim
Tina fears a complete metamorphosis of the TV landscape. “2025 seems to be the year of the disappearing show host. Major studio shows are scarce.”
For example, SBS 6 still comes with The Winner Takes It All, but also wants something different from Wendy van Dijk and has therefore roped in Hélène Hendriks. Wendy is therefore the ‘biggest victim of this trend’, Tina believes.
‘Can go fast’
Wendy is really all out, she continues. “In the past six months she was only seen on TV for one evening, not even on her own channel, but on NPO 1 as the narrator of The Passion. Now an acting role remains in Medisch Centrum West. Things can move quickly.”
Who follows her? Jamai Loman has lost Secret Duets, Marlijn Weerdenburg only does MolTalk. “And no Marieke Elsinga with a big quiz on TV this fall.”
New stars
New stars will rise, Tina thinks. Stars who dare to sit at the table at a Today Inside, such as Wendy, for example, explicitly does not dare.
“In television it is no longer about who presents the best or wears the most expensive dress, but who dares to be the most real.”