Matthijs van Nieuwkerk is not mentioned once in the anniversary issue of the VARA guide, which celebrates BnnVara’s centenary. “This is very strange and stupid.”
The VARA guide has a special issue on the shelves this week, one that celebrates 100 years of VARA. When you think of the recent history of the broadcaster, you mainly think of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk and his legendary program De Wereld Draait Door, but both come off quite poorly.
Completely ignored
TV authority Tina Nijkamp has looked through that entire guide and is astonished. “De Wereld Draait Door is not even mentioned in the entire guide. So Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has been completely erased from the broadcaster, and so is the program now. Very strange and very stupid,” she writes on her analysis channel.
She continues: “Isn’t DWDD the most influential program that the broadcaster has had in the entire 100 years? I think so. Matthijs and the program do not deserve this. This total ignoring. Bizarre.”
What does the guide say?
Editor-in-chief Roy van Vilsteren states in the guide that choices had to be made. “This anniversary issue is of course incomplete: a century cannot be reduced to one guide, even if it is extra thick. Where is Marcel van Dam, who pulled VARA back from the brink of the financial abyss? The world keeps turning, Say ‘ns Aaa?”
He gives the answer to this himself: “In this edition we have mainly focused on what has stuck. About what remains, memories, friendships, but also parliamentary questions stimulated by Zembla. How the Netherlands watched and listened to the programs – and sometimes changed as a result. Which made something better.”
Ridiculous success
What a nonsense argument, Tina thinks. “’In this edition we have mainly focused on what has stuck around’? Eeehhhhh… DWDD in particular has stuck around: a ridiculously great success every day and for fifteen years.”
According to her, it is incomprehensible and unprecedented. She concludes: “At least a photo of Zeg ‘ns Aaa has been posted, and Marcel van Dam is also mentioned!”