Merel Westrik’s TV career has completely gone downhill after her failed adventure with Talpa. “Earning a ton or two extra seems nice until you suddenly find yourself on the reserve bench.”
Merel Westrik was hijacked by Linda de Mol from RTL Nieuws in 2019. Thanks to Linda’s bulging wallet and promotional texts, Merel jeopardized her TV career for an extremely risky switch to Net5, which at the time was run by Linda as a sort of hobby project.
Blackbird on the lower shore
What everyone saw coming, actually happened: Merel’s talk show Ladies Night flopped massively on Net5. In the end Linda decided to run as the new banner of Net5 and Merel was left penniless. Nice those extra tons from Linda, but three years later her career is still in the ditch.
Merel’s contract expired silently last summer, Talpa confirms after she suddenly appeared as a substitute for Roelof Hemmen in Eva Jinek’s talk show last Friday evening. “But we certainly do not rule out a possible collaboration in the future.”
Tina gives judgment
Tina Nijkamp, the former channel boss of SBS 6, thinks that Merel was a bit unwise. “Well. This was coming before Ladies Night even aired. Had Merel never seen an episode of De Tafel van 5?”, she writes on Instagram, pointing to the similar former show that also flopped.
She continues: “I never understood why she made the switch as anchor woman from RTL News to a look-a-like of De Tafel van 5. Hopefully she will go back to RTL, like Rik van de Westelaken went back to NPO after his Net5 adventure. Curious who her manager was who advised her on this Net5 adventure.”
Not to RTL News
According to Tina, the chance that Merel will reappear at RTL Nieuws is small. “I don’t think we’ll see Merel again on RTL Nieuws. That program is going so well. It is currently the best-scoring program in the Netherlands in the commercial target group 20 to 54 years of age.”
Then put in the place of Roelof Hemmen at Jinek? “I think we will see Eva and Merel together sooner than we think. Wouldn’t surprise me.”
Grab at Talpa
In any case, the grabbing at Talpa has exploded in Merel’s face. “The conclusion is, of course, again (Rik van de Westelaken already knew that): earning a ton or two more a year seems nice, but money turns out to be worth a lot less if you sit on the reserve bench and/or suddenly present quizzes when you really don’t want to.”
