Peter Gillis does not intend to follow in the footsteps of the Meilandjes and also to make a welfare soap. “We just keep our own and don’t act, dude.”
It is one of the most controversial programs of the moment: Chateau Bijstand, the show in which the wealthy Meilandjes go on welfare for a month. It has not done the image of the TV family any good. Will we soon end up in a situation where the Gillis family becomes the most popular reality family of SBS 6?
Regular club fans
Telegraaf reporter Jordi Versteegden asks Peter Gillis. “Nowadays it’s really fighting for the reality series on SBS 6, isn’t it. We now have Chateau Assistance, we have you. Do you notice anything… Chateau Bijstand is sometimes criticized at the moment. Do you notice that more fans are heading your way?”
Peter then: “No, we just have a regular club of fans. Whether there’s football on or something else, we always have regular viewers. So no. There will probably be people watching Bijstand, the Meilandjes, that’s all fine too, but you don’t have to think about our program. That’s just nice and flat, just the way we are.”
no comparison
Jordi: “Do you see yourself a bit as the new Martien or do you say: ‘That is really completely different’?”
Peter: “No, that’s completely different. I don’t want to compare myself either. We don’t have to do it for the money either. If I stop tomorrow, I will stop and Martin will just do it for commerce and luckily we don’t have to do it for that.”
Acting
Peter certainly doesn’t like to make entertainment out of a life on welfare, just like the Meilandjes. “No, that’s not for us, because we just keep our own and don’t act, dude.”
Jordi: “Oh, that’s acting what they do, you say?”
Peter: “Yeah, I think that’s acting, so ehh… Look, I don’t care. We are just the way we are and when we drink a bottle of wine, we drink it. I have never seen people on welfare drinking wine and they are already drinking wine in the afternoon. I don’t see anything in it!”
Fragment
Peter speaking: