After De Villa and The Voice, there is now another scandal surrounding a program on RTL, namely Temptation Island. Can Peter van der Vorst still stay on? Difficult, says media critic Victor Vlam.
Victor Vlam thinks that Peter van der Vorst, RTL’s content boss, should be seriously concerned. “I think it is an important moment in his career for RTL content director Peter van der Vorst. I think you can just factually conclude that his job is at stake,” he says in the podcast The Communicados.
Peter in danger zone?
Why should Peter fear for his job? “This is the third time in his time as program director that a major scandal has come to light about abuses behind the scenes of a program that can be seen on his platform. In 2019 it was De Villa, in 2022 The Voice and now Temptation Island. Three scandals in three programs.”
The razor-sharp media expert continues: “If this happened three times… You cannot keep saying that you were unaware of these abuses, because yes, that does raise questions. Why do you still not know? Why are you always surprised about what happens behind the scenes? And whatever the answer is, it is of course very bad.”
Radically different
Why is it bad of Peter anyway? “Because either he didn’t know because it just didn’t interest him that much or he didn’t know because he has no control over the people who work for him. Maybe he thought it was good to do things radically differently after The Voice, but people who work for him thought: whatever.”
That is very problematic, says Victor. “This question, why he keeps not knowing and why RTL is always bombarded by these kinds of scandals, that is the question that the bosses in Luxembourg will ask and of course also that the employees at RTL in the Netherlands will ask themselves.”
Credible
Peter loses credibility, he thinks. “I thought he intervened well at De Villa and The Voice. He also gave a very open, transparent and critical interview about this at Beau’s table. I thought that was very commendable. I now think that he is 1-0 behind, because action was only taken after there was a fuss about it.”
Intervening because of the fuss and not because of the abuses is simply very disappointing, says Victor. “At RTL, the management had known about these abuses for some time and nothing was done about it until there was a fuss.”
Blameable
AD media journalist Marcus den Blanken also has his doubts, he says in the AD Media podcast. “Don’t we think it is a bit culpable on Peter van der Vorst’s part? (…) You now first get a bit of a John de Mol-like reaction after Peter van der Vorst’s The Voice. And now he puts it a bit hesitantly after consultation with the producer on hold.”
Angela de Jong thinks that Peter’s standards and values are disappointing. “Mark, they know, right? They have already paid 30,000 euros to that couple. They know perfectly well what is going on.”
Marcus: “So basically he just made a mess of it.”
Angela: “Yes, he has that too.”