quizzes. Both the public broadcaster and Talpa and RTL have one on primetime this summer. They are cheap to make, the viewers can enjoy participating, and it remains a popular, form-retaining genre that the TV station can’t go wrong with. Although in one case that is a bit disappointing.
On Sunday Talpa brought the quiz with some fanfare The best answer (SBS6). Winston Gerschtanowitz presents. The advantage of this quiz is that you do not have to give the correct answer. They are approach questions. Whoever is closest wins. How many Baantjer books are there? How many chopsticks in mikado? How many rooms in Buckingham Palace? The question quickly arises: how many questions do we still have? And how many minutes does this quiz actually take? The program is certainly twice too long for such a monotonous series of questions. Boring, boring, boring. Drawn a quarter of a million viewers The best answer – too little for a Sunday evening, so this program will soon end up in the full Talpa cemetery.
Holiday gap GTST
RTL is doing better. The daily quiz I know everything about it (RTL4) has been successfully filling the holiday gap of . for a few summers GTST† Ruben Nicolaï questions Dutch celebrities about their specialities. For example, MAX boss Jan Slagter is a Bible exegete and TV chef Rudolph van Veen knows everything about punk. In theory you could ask interesting questions about it, but it should remain understandable for everyone, so often the questions are stupid (punk) or too easy (Bible). Never mind, the atmosphere is good, the presenter is entertaining, and the candidates are fun.
At the daily quiz The smartest person (KRO-NCRV) say the candidates at the beginning sometimes fear that from now on they will have to live as De Domste Mens. However, losing this quiz says nothing about your intelligence. These are facts from popular culture. The quiz is almost always won by presenters, comedians and journalists. They are not the smartest people, but the biggest media eaters who consume the same as the questioners.
Doesn’t take away that The smartest person is by far the best and most watched quiz on Dutch TV. This summer the TV program celebrates its tenth anniversary, not counting the fact that Talpa (2006) and RTL (2009) previously broadcast the quiz. An additional online all-star edition featuring the winners of yesteryear kicks off Friday. Just like Who is the mole participation can boost your career. Running as an underdog works best. Singer Rob Kemps van Snollebollekes acquired a lot of prestige last year because people had estimated him much lower based on his meehossers. Kemps was able to immediately move on to Chansons with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk.
When you see the original Flemish version of The smartest person see, you do not understand why the Dutch is so popular. In Flanders it is a vibrant show with a lot of humor and craziness. Here it is neater and older, with the well-groomed presenter Philip Freriks.
one-man jury
The million dollar question is: what is the added value of Maarten van Rossem? Officially, he is the one-man jury, but he does not interfere in the competition. Slumped and grumpy, the “Grumpy Smurf and Grouchy Smurf” (Freriks) growls about three times per broadcast that the world is dying of stupidity. The quips are not very original. This week he teaches us that Samson and Gert is a bad children’s program; that guys who send dick pics are mentally disturbed; and that the gender inequality in Smurfland leads to MeToo scenes.
“It is that stupid,” says Van Rossem.
“It is a program of a certain level, Maarten”, Freriks replies.
“You can say that yes,” grumbles Van Rossem.