Peter van der Vorst, the big television boss of RTL, was in the audience during the auditions for RTL Tonight guests. “I was really there and just thought: okay, hello people. Really exciting.”
They had to become the crowd pullers of RTL Tonight: the regular guests who sit there every night. It was so important for RTL boss Peter van der Vorst that it would be the right people that he himself sat down with the auditions, says Lara Zevenberg. She is chef entertainment at nu.nl and is now also on the desk of the talk show.
Idols audition
It is a whole new experience for Lara, she says The backbag podcast. “Yes, RTL Tonight, you know, the television program that nobody watches. A few months ago, contact me was contacted by the editorial team of RTL Tonight if I wanted to do some sort of audition. I first came for a conversation.”
After that conversation, an audition followed and according to Lara it looked just like an Idols audition. “I will tell you for a moment: it was more or less so. It was a board cardboard desk. Exactly in this form, but then of plywood or something. It really didn’t mean anything. We were in a dark room, pitch black, and there were a few studio lamps and some TVs behind us.”
Run-Through
It was not yet a pilot, according to Lara. “Because they didn’t call it, but a kind of Run-through with Beau van Erven Dorens and then three other people, including Saskia Belleman. We had to talk a bit about B&B full of love. I liked that, I went for that. I don’t have many talents, but talking is certainly one.”
Who was in the audience? “It was a very dark space. So it was very strange, because there were a lot of lamps on you and you could not see who was around you. It was said to us:” The editors are watching “, and then the lamps went on and then there were just 30 or 40 people, including Peter van der Vorst.”
“Peter was there”
Peter is of course ‘the big boss of RTL’, says Lara. “I was really like that and just thought: okay, hello people. Really exciting. I also recorded a pilot after that. That was with Humberto and that was already in the studio. I think that studio really beautiful. I think the lamps are beautiful and I find it atmospheric.”
She continues: “People are very angry about that desk, but I honestly don’t understand it very much. What does it matter if it is a table or a desk? If you sit next to each other, you will talk to each other more easily. At Eva you have the same feeling, because then you are also in a kind of loop. Then you are not opposite each other, but are you talking to each other.”
Tina and Victor
What does Lara think that RTL Tonight is a flop? “There is a nice hating from a Tina Nijkamp or a Victor Vlam, I understand it, because you see it on television, but there are also dozens behind the scenes really hard every day. Those are people who are dedicated, find it exciting and you just notice that there.”
“Until deep into the night, hey? I was ready at noon and those people are often not ready yet, because they have to finish things. For them I hope that something more will be looked at.”