Marco Louwerens, known as the ‘director’ of TV hit Today Inside, states that ‘it is impossible to work with Humberto Tan’. “He has it so high in his head,” said the well-known television bobo.
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when Humberto Tan was the most celebrated talk show host in our country. Coincidence or not: the tide turned when the presenter was caught having an affair with Dionne Stax. Or, as Peter R. de Vries put it: “You were in the opening of the NOS Journaal a few times a week.” Phew…
Best host ever
René van der Gijp still finds it strange that Humberto suddenly went downhill so much. “Humberto Tan is just like Paul de Leeuw. You can’t put your finger on it. I remember when he interviewed those guys from the Bataclan and when Matthijs almost announced him in DWDD as the best talk show host of all time, yes, even better as Willem Duys.”
He continues at the table Today Inside: “I’ve always said to you: I never had the idea that things have changed. He didn’t act any differently when he had 1.4 million viewers than when he had 400,000. It was always feel-good TV.”
Case in point Dionne
It all changed in one fell swoop, says René. “Then the case of Dionne Stax came along and he always played the househusband and the ideal family man. At a certain point, everyone suddenly started to find him unbelievable. What Johan thinks now, more people started to think so.”
TV authority Tina Nijkamp thinks it is a coincidence that the Stax affair and his declining popularity coincided. “I think: what went wrong is that that talk show was such a great success that he had editorial freedom and wanted more sports and music in it, because that is very important to him.”
Sports and music
His program then changed enormously, according to Tina. “Then I saw that program turned into a sports and music show, and everyone said, ‘It’s because of the affair with Dionne Stax,’ but that’s not true at all. Why do the people at home care?”
TV mustache Johan Derksen: “The worst thing about Humberto is that he is a comedian. I heard from the owners at RTL that when he had good grades, he almost started walking in his shoes. Then he thought he was Our Lord and then he indeed started determining the content.”
‘Uncooperative’
René confirms that reading. “Yes, that’s the story. Marco also spent another six months.”
This concerns TV boss Marco Louwerens, known as the ‘director’ of VI. Johan: “Yes, as a supervisor, but he says: ‘It’s impossible to work with that man. He’s so high on his mind.’”
Tina concludes: “Yes, those good viewing figures have given him too much editorial freedom and that is something he should be careful about. He apparently does not have a good antenna for what a good line-up is.”