Things never really worked out for Paul de Leeuw after he saw his TV show Mooi Weer De Leeuw change from a ratings hit into a major flop. How are you doing now? “Stupid questions!”
No matter how hard he tries, Paul de Leeuw’s TV career has been on its last legs for a long time. The tragic low point so far? The bizarrely bad last series of Ranking the Stars. It probably caused him more damage than he thinks, because to get over that, you have to excel very much.
Podcast fails
And excel? In any case, Paul is not doing that at the moment as presenter of the new commercial Efteling podcast. Wessel Wit, journalist for Thomas van Groningen’s authoritative amusement park website Looopings, thinks it is a shame. “It could have been so interesting: an extensive podcast series about the Fairytale Forest,” he writes X.
The podcast was made by Efteling itself. “But after two episodes it is painfully clear that the biggest mistake was already made at the very beginning: the choice of Paul de Leeuw as presenter. A well-known name is not necessarily a good podcast maker.”
Stupid questions
According to Wessel, Paul can’t do anything about it. “De Leeuw is poorly informed, asks stupid questions, hardly listens to the answers and rarely lets his guests finish.”
“He regularly throws four half-baked questions on the table at the same time, and then ignores what is being said. And if he doesn’t understand something, which happens surprisingly often, guests have to repeat their answers endlessly. The result is a conversation that drags on in fits and starts.”
Jerking and jerking
Actually, Paul just ruins everything, Wessel thinks. “The presenter shouts through it, wanders off and seems completely unaware of what is interesting for the listener.”
And what does he think of Paul’s voice? “You hate it or you love itbut here it mainly evokes the urge to puke. It doesn’t make it any better. All in all, listening is more of an ordeal than a relaxing experience.”