Martijn Krabbé reaches a low point in his TV career. His Better Than Ever program is getting worse and worse and yesterday’s score is very poignant. “This is the Avastars of RTL 4!”
Better Than Ever, in which Martijn Krabbé and Waylon provide psychological help to traumatized former candidates of The Voice of Holland, did well last year with an average of 873 thousand viewers on Saturday evening. Now, on Thursday evening, the viewing figures are bad. They continue to drop week after week.
Avastars level
After 736, 596 and 430 thousand viewers, the fourth episode of Better Than Ever only scored 283 thousand viewers (5 percent market share) to RTL 4 last night. This means that the program has ended up in the drain of Stichting KijkOnderzoek. At least 370 thousand viewers were needed for a place in the daily viewing figures top 25.
Even with a competitor like The Passion in front of you – which attracted 2.5 million viewers (46 percent) – these are far too low figures according to viewing figures. “Better Than Ever (once successful on Saturdays) is now becoming one of the biggest RTL 4 primetime flops. It’s almost heading towards Avastar’s scores.” tweets RTL Boulevard journalist Joost Maiburg.
Tina is shocked
Viewing figure connoisseur Tina Nijkamp is also completely upset. She spit out her coffee this morning when she saw the ratings of the fright. She writes: “Huh? It didn’t go well but so little? This is historically low for RTL 4. Only 4.9 percent (!) market share in the commercial target group aged 20 to 54.”
Channel boss Peter van der Vorst will be sorry, thinks Tina. “At RTL 4 they will now completely think: if only we had broadcast Everything is Music there, because that would probably have scored better there AND then we could have left Better Than Ever on the familiar, much better scoring spot on Saturday at 9.30 p.m. to stand.”
‘It pinches’
Yet Tina has an even bigger objection. “This program will not come back, that is for sure. And as said before: this program also wrings too much, it is not right to hear former candidates say that participating in a talent show has actually brought them uncertainty and sadness.
She points to the story of Demi van Wijngaarden, who went ‘completely off track’ after her participation. Tina: “Week after week in Better Than Ever it becomes clear that participating in a talent show can destroy more than you love, instead of making your dreams come true. Really shocking.”
“Should RTL 4, which broadcasts both Better Than Ever and The Voice, actually still WANT to broadcast The Voice if you hear so many drama stories on Better Than Ever? Do you still want that as a channel? And what does Martijn Krabbé (presenter of both programs) actually think of that?”
Viewing figures
The viewing figures of Thursday, April 6, 2023 (SKO):
Top 15 | Market shares (18-24h, 6+) |
|---|---|
| 01. The Passion (NPO1) 2,450,000 | 01. NPO1 / 34.2% |
| 02. Journal 20:00 (NPO1) 2,164,000 | 02. RTL4 / 14.1% |
| 03. News 18:00 (NPO1) 1,211,000 | 03. SBS6 / 11.1% |
| 04. Half past seven news (RTL4) 1,041,000 | 04. NPO2 / 7.1% |
| 05. EenVandaag (NPO1) 1,011,000 | 05. NPO3 / 4.9% |
| 06. RTL Boulevard (RTL4) 939,000 | 06. RTL5 / 3.7% |
| 07. Op1 (NPO1) 915,000 | 07. RTL8 / 3.2% |
| 08. Conversation with Prime Minister (NPO1) 891,000 | 08. RTL7 / 2.9% |
| 09. Today Inside (SBS6) 827,000 | 09.NET5 / 2.3% |
| 10. Edition NL (RTL4) 824,000 | 10. Vero / 1.7% |
| 11. Khalid & Sophie (NPO1) 809,000 | 11. Paramount / 1.3% |
| 12. Good Times Bad Times (RTL4) 722,000 | 12. Discov / 1.1% |
| 13. Six Hours of News (RTL4) 703,000 | 13. SBS9 / 0.8% |
| 14. Inside Out (NPO2) 644,000 | 14. Comedy / 0.8% |
| 15. Beau (RTL4) 587,000 | 15. ESPN / 0.6% |
Market shares per channel group (18-24h, 6+) | More viewing figures at: |
| 01. Public Broadcasting 46.2% |  |
| 02. RTL Netherlands 24.5% | |
| 03. Talpa TV 15.9% |
Programs that did not make it to the top 15 include Hart van Nederland (551 thousand), Tijd voor MAX (521 thousand), Het Roer Om (500 thousand), Nieuwsuur (422 thousand), HLF8 (408 thousand) and Shownieuws (370 thousand ).