Matthijs van Nieuwkerk will follow in the footsteps of Arjen Lubach, fears TV authority Tina Nijkamp. She fears that there is no match at all between the SBS 6 viewer and the fallen television star.
After years of suffering, the time has finally come: Matthijs van Nieuwkerk is making his return to television, namely on SBS 6. Apparently John de Mol has pulled out a lot of money and has made the fallen TV star a kind of carte blanche because he is going to make a musical series with Shirma Rouse about soul legend Aretha Franklin.
Out of the box
Aretha Franklin is not exactly on the playlist of the average SBS viewer. After all, he still has Guardian Angel on repeat all day long. Anyway: Matthijs can make it.
TV authority Tina Nijkamp, who was the channel boss of SBS 6 for years, fears the worst. “For Matthijs it is quite ‘out of the box’, as they say,” she writes The Telegraph.
Other world
Tina doesn’t think it fits the SBS profile. “SBS6 is the channel of Frans Bauer and Gerard Joling. Singing along, fun and recognisability. Queen and ABBA. Nothing wrong with that. On the contrary. But Matthijs comes from a completely different world.”
According to her, when you think of Matthijs, you think of the cultural elite. “SBS6 was often dismissed as the camping channel by the same elite.”
Camping transmitter
Tina once noticed this herself when she was sitting at the table at De Wereld Draait Door as SBS boss. When she said that she genuinely liked SBS programs, people burst out laughing, she remembers. “Matthijs wondered whether I would rather do something more cultural in my spare time.”
In other words: it is a complete mismatch, she concludes. “I actually think that Matthijs van Nieuwkerk will become for SBS6 what Arjen Lubach is for RTL 4. Many viewers will tune in especially for him, but will immediately leave as soon as the program is over. A viewing island.”