The renovation of the Op1 set cost around 200,000 euros last summer, reports the AD. And that, according to critics, is astonishing, because the talk show will end in a few months.
It came as a big surprise at the end of June: Op1 decided, after the sudden departure of BNNVARA, to go on a summer break and renovate the set. This required ‘an adjustment and minor renovation’. Well, all of that may have come at a cost. It A.D now reports that no less than 200,000 euros have been invested.
Epic waste
Victor Vlam, a feared media critic, can’t believe it. He points out that Op1 will stop in a few months and that the new decor looks almost the same.
He writes down X that he really cannot follow such a decision: “According to the AD, the renovation of the Op1 studio cost no less than €200,000. That’s an epic waste of taxpayer money. I don’t think most viewers can tell the before and after apart.”
Very hard
Actually, Victor just thinks it’s scandalous. “There’s no accounting for taste. But for that much money, they are very subtle adjustments: a new table, benches, pillars and a slightly different wall.”
At the BBC, millions are sometimes invested in a set. “Beats. But BBC News’ previous studio lasted nine years and is still used occasionally as a backup. Op1 only worked with this studio for 3.5 years when they started renovating. Then I find it very difficult to justify two hundred thousand euros.”
Five differences
Well-known columnist Johan Fretz can barely tell the difference between the old and the new studio. “Reminds me a bit of the books I read with my children, with two almost identical pictures and then ‘spot the five differences.’”
And podcast maker Victor Hopman: “Whuuut? For 200,000 euros I will also drive back and forth to Leen Bakker for an afternoon for a new table and some benches.”