The Meilandjes have entered a new phase of their career. Quite a stormy phase. “I think many people are a bit tired of them,” analyzes Telegraaf journalist Kitty Herweijer.
For a long time, the Meiland TV family benefited from the fact that everyone actually liked them. Martien Meiland could count on loud applause when he entered the Televizier stage with his ‘normal’ family and shouted that they had pulled SBS 6 out of the mire with their own hands. Now, a few years later, the Meilandjes are no longer close to each other.
girls sat
Kitty Herweijer, media reporter for De Telegraaf, points to the enormous riot surrounding their poverty show Chateau Bijstand. “Yeah, it’s a bit of a tricky format these days because, well, more and more people are dealing with poverty, there’s a lot more focus on growing inequality,” she says in The Culture and Media podcast†
But, she continues: “I think it has more to do with the Meiland family in the end and that this is a bit of a stick to beat with, because I think many people are really just a bit tired of the Meilandjes. You may wonder whether that is right.”
Horrible
Kitty herself has no problem with the Meilandjes, but she understands where the massive annoyance comes from. “I still think they’re funny, but of course there has been a fuss about Erica Meiland’s statement and there has been a fuss with them before.”
She continues: “You just see that more often… When people are very much loved for a long time, they can’t do anything wrong, and at some point one or two things happen and everyone suddenly hates them. I have the feeling that that is happening a bit with the Meiland family.”
Assistance safari
Does Kitty think that Chateau Assistance is chafing? “It doesn’t rub for me. I was also on welfare for ten years of my childhood and I can just watch it without having to… Yes, of course I understand: it’s just television and it’s not something that corresponds one-on-one with the reality and that is also the criticism.”
“You only feel poverty after months or years. Then it can only become distressing if you do not have a washing machine or if you have mounting debts. Now it is a month of assistance safari and what does that mean? Yes, of course, everyone understands that, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. They are also raising money and they are also talking about the topic.”
bad reading
Everyone is talking about it anyway, Kitty continues. “I don’t know if that’s so bad. It’s really the angriest possible reading or something that people want to give it, while I think: it’s just a Talpa program. There are so many things you can see as a little tacky or something like that or something.”
“To be so hyper-moralistic about it… I think it’s really nagging a bit.”