Özcan Akyol thinks it’s over with Spoorloos after the news about the cheating reunions at the program. “I think it’s over,” said the TV host.
The TV classic Spoorloos has been very sloppy for years. Until 2019, DNA tests were not even taken on candidates who were “reunited” with their original families. It now appears that at least two cheat reunions have already taken place as a result. The big question is: does it stop there?
‘Infected without trace’
Özcan Akyol doesn’t think so. He fears that presenter Derk Bolt should pack things better. “The program is now infected, so with all those other broadcasts you will also think: is it correct? I think it’s over,” says the presenter of NPO programs in Today Inside.
René van der Gijp: “Those people have simply been in contact for years with someone they thought was his brother. You just have contact with a complete stranger! Bizarre man!”
fixer
Spoorloos turns out to have worked with at least one fixer who does not take his work so closely. A fixer is a local person abroad who arranges certain things on the spot. Johan Derksen: “The sixteen people who have had to deal with that guy are now all wondering: is that mother my mother?”
Özcan thinks that such a fixer is also under pressure. “If you’re going to run it abroad, you have to work with a fixer. At a certain point you are placed in such a schedule at the NPO and then you know: I have to broadcast then and then. Then you also become less critical I think and such a fixer says: ‘I’ll take care of it.’”
wet finger work
Spoorloos puts too much trust in the hands of those fixers, according to Özcan. “It’s already in the name: ‘I’ll fix it.’ And if they know when you need to know, then such a fixer will probably point out other people.”
Johan finds it an embarrassment that the work of those fixers has not been checked by means of DNA tests for years. Spoorloos only started to do this in 2019. “That is a bit late, because that was invented much earlier.”
Wilfred Genee: “Before that it was a bit of a finger work.”
Cancelled
Özcan: “That’s not really possible. It’s also the pressure of making TV, isn’t it? He knows: I have eight episodes to deliver. It also costs money, doesn’t it? If you don’t finish an episode, you have to refund the production money. You can’t say, “Thank you for the money, but we don’t have an episode.” So you have to deliver something.”
They think it’s better to stop without a trace. Johan: “That program has more or less dissolved as a result of this incident, because you can never watch Spoorloos again as you did.”
René: “Yes, without thinking: this is not true.”
