Karien van Gennip, the 54-year-old Minister of Social Affairs, fell horribly during the broadcast of the TV program Buitenhof. “You’re scared to death!”
While TV-watching Netherlands is still recovering from the bloody fall of a studio guest at Op1 – Margje Fikse: ‘Hey, someone is bleeding on the floor. Is she still breathing?’ – it turns out that another talk show guest had a fall a few weeks ago. The whole country has missed it, but Minister Karien van Gennip was on her sniffer at Buitenhof.
Hard fall
Karien was a guest with presenter Pieter Jan Hagens three weeks ago and after her interview had to change places with Tim de Wit, who was sitting on a chair in the decor. On minute 18:10 of the broadcast there is a terribly loud noise and you can see how the presenter on duty is completely shocked.
Pieter Jan: “Whoa, WOW! Something went wrong there. Yes, but fortunately… Yes… Something went… Mrs. Van Gennip didn’t end up quite right, but… Are you okay? Oh, happy. Nothing wrong. Well, that was a bit of a shock.”
No blood
A minute later we see Karien sitting on a chair in the set as if nothing is wrong. A production worker brings her a side table to put her glass of water on, after which she puts an arm on her shoulder. The fall was unfortunate, but not bloody. Moreover, the fall itself was not shown on television.
As a result, the fall did not make the news at all. Tim de Wit is now raking it up in the talk show Jinek: “I happened to be at Buitenhof a few weeks ago, where it also happened. That was not in the picture. That was with Minister Van Gennip and I then had to sit down at the table and she fell behind me. She sat very unhappy on a chair.”
“Scared me to death!”
Eva Jinek surprised: “And you just sat down at the table?”
Fellow guest Marc-Marie Huijbregts jokingly: “You stepped over it?”
Tim: “No, no! Pieter Jan Hagens presented and of course he was also scared to death. So he asked: are you okay? Fortunately she got up very quickly and it all went well again, but it is really strange things to experience something like this on television. Of course you’re scared to death.”
Scramble up
Karien got nothing out of it, says Tim. “I turned around and I saw her get up again, so luckily she was fine again.”
Eva warns her guests: “Sit down guys. Just don’t move, then nothing can happen.”