John de Mol has caught the most expensive flop of his TV career at the last minute. The Avastars program, which he fantasized about for more than twenty years, got off to a colossal bad start.
It doesn’t happen often that John de Mol personally announces a program somewhere, but two years ago he sat at the desk of Shownieuws to present Avastars. The format in a nutshell: digital puppets (avastars) are each controlled by a real singer and dancer, after which the puppets compete against each other in front of a jury.
Very bad
Well, there they went yesterday, those digital puppets by John de Mol: before the eyes of 304 thousand viewers (6 percent), Avastars premiered on SBS 6. After twenty years of dreaming about this project, the media billionaire can now fantasize about which spot in the night programming he will free up.
Tina Nijkamp, former broadcaster boss of SBS 6, is stunned. “Unbelievable. Not even in the top 25. DRAMA. Another format shattered for John de Mol. I suspect his most expensive flop ever. It should be the new Voice, but this program has already lost its voice. What a nightmare and the reviews are really bad,” she writes.
Night schedule
Marcus den Blanken, media journalist for the AD, thinks that John really needs to be shaken up. “Yes-men are very annoying. You better have some critics around you. Costs you less money. This is a very painful morning for John de Mol. Most expensive flop ever,” he tweeted.
TV connoisseur Ron Vergouwen of Omroep MAX says: “John de Mol seems to be the feeling with the viewer completely lost. After the NIX Factor, now Avastars again ??♂️ Only when an Avastar is so lifelike that you see no difference with a real person can this become something. And the judges just pretend it’s great. They don’t even see them!”
Sims animation
Marcus finds the quality of a poor level. “I especially feel sorry for the jury: they had to judge this seriously. The average Ex on the Beach contestant looks more real than this Sims animation.”
Televizier journalist Jef Willemsen agrees. “So you need two real people to make an Avastar that looks like it escaped from a Playstation 3 game circa 2009? Bright. Holy crap. With a comma in between.”
Jef fears that John has lost his magic. “But true: Avastars proves that no one at Talpa can say no to John. Almost two years ago he was lyrical at Shownieuws because after 20 (!) years his TV idea came true. Nobody said no. Now the tweeting viewer is saying it. The emperor has no clothes.”
RTL Boulevard reporter Joost Maiburg fears relegation: “The night programming of SBS 6 is getting fuller and fuller in this way.”
‘It’s fantastic!’
Does no one really like it? Yes, of course: the stars of Shownieuws! Evert Santegoeds: “It is quite a spectacle. If you know that it took twenty years to make this technically possible, then you should take a look, even if you think: huh, what, two singers, two dancers? It’s really brilliantly done.”
According to Evert, viewers just don’t understand how fantastic all this is. “This is the biggest technical challenge ever, because that program is technically very cleverly put together. And I think the viewer is half unaware of that. Maybe we had making of to turn off.”
Dear God, one more making of of John’s Sims fantasy gone wrong. Fortunately, Shownieuws had no place for that among all the other Talpa propaganda.
Minute analysis
Evert prefers to fill Shownieuws with Avastars promos. “We have regularly paid attention to it in Shownieuws last week. As you know minute figures are kept of the program. You can see exactly when people zap away or come back or linger. And they really stick with this subject.”
Does he perhaps also have a cautious compliment in store for the presenter on duty, Kalvijn? Of course. “That is really a NATURAL TALENT on television as a presenter!!!”
Can someone pass this all on to John de Mol? Then Evert will also have received his bonus again.
Lost helplessly
Back to Tina. When will SBS 6 announce the cremation of this show? “Will it be taken off the schedule? I suspect not, also because The NIX Factor has just moved to the night. What then? I think they may shorten the series by a few episodes and schedule another rerun on NET5 and/or SBS6.”
She concludes: “The conclusion is that this TV program is already irretrievably lost. The viewer simply does not want to look at it. Also for the jury and the candidates who participate, of course, really terrible. After the very long wait (series was already recorded in June and July 2022) now this. I don’t think anyone expected this low.”
‘All of 1999’
What do viewers think? Thijs tweets: “What a flop, this may have been groundbreaking in 1999. ? Moreover, I get vicarious shame from the jury: grown men (and once appreciated artists?) who talk in a childish way to a virtual puppet who performed for them .”
Only in the third episode does a digital doll fall off. “Hahahahaha as if it is still on TV”, screams the knowledgeable TV viewer Victor Hopman.
Viewing figures
The viewing figures of Friday, February 24, 2023 (SKO):
Top 15 | Market shares (18-24h, 6+) |
|---|---|
| 01. Journal 20:00 (NPO1) 2,144,000 | 01. NPO1 / 26.2% |
| 02. Cops Maastricht (NPO1) 1,535,000 | 02. RTL4 / 15.0% |
| 03. At Van Duin on the Ach (NPO1) 1,325,000 | 03. NPO2 / 12.3% |
| 04. Two to twelve (NPO2) 1,295,000 | 04. SBS6 / 9.4% |
| 05. News 18:00 (NPO1) 1,191,000 | 05. RTL5 / 4.5% |
| 06. Half past seven news (RTL4) 1,150,000 | 06. NPO3 / 3.7% |
| 07. EenVandaag (NPO1) 1,029,000 | 07. RTL8 / 3.3% |
| 08. Conversation with Prime Minister (NPO1) 937,000 | 08. RTL7 / 3.2% |
| 09. RTL Boulevard (RTL4) 864,000 | 09.NET5 / 2.8% |
| 10. The Cut Guest (NPO2) 757,000 | 10. Vero / 2.6% |
| 11. Today Inside (SBS6) 748,000 | 11. ESPN / 1.7% |
| 12. Op1 (NPO1) 690,000 | 12.BBC / 1.5% |
| 13. Heart of the Netherlands (SBS6) 653,000 | 13. Discov / 1.3% |
| 14. Khalid and Sophie (NPO1) 642,000 | 14. ESPN2 / 1.0% |
| 15. Chantal’s Pajama Party (RTL4) 635,000 | 15. Paramount / 0.8% |
Market shares per channel group (18-24h, 6+) | More viewing figures at: |
| 01. Public Broadcasting 42.2% |  |
| 02. RTL Netherlands 26.8% | |
| 03. Talpa TV 15.3% |
Programs that did not make the top 15 include Nieuwsuur (584 thousand), Jinek (561 thousand), Tijd voor MAX (518 thousand), Shownieuws (424 thousand) and HLF8 (269 thousand).
