René van der Gijp reveals that there is a guest crisis at Today Inside: hardly anyone wants to come. “Sometimes when I’m sitting in the garden, I think: how are we supposed to go on right now?”
The daily talk show Today Inside is no longer such a big hit as it was in the beginning, but with about 600 to 700,000 viewers every day, it is still a success for SBS 6. Still, things are not exactly running smoothly behind the scenes, revealed René van der Gijp in yesterday’s broadcast. “It’s not always easy to get people.”
No guests
VI is struggling with a guest crisis. “We hardly get any people here. Everyone we call, everyone who is called by the editors… Everyone thinks with this program: what would be the benefit of this? You are one of the few who is now coming back,” he says to Angela de Jong. “Others say: yes, we add too little.”
Özcan Akyol and Roos Schlikker are regular guests, and Angela was already sitting at the table for the second time. “But there are so many who don’t want to come anymore and who don’t want to. They somehow find that they add nothing. You just have to fall in there every now and then,” says René.
Criticism of Paul
For a while it seemed that Paul de Leeuw would also become a regular guest, but his performance last week was difficult. René more or less reminded him not to go against Johan Derksen (“that’s not the format”) and he also started to defend Jeroen van der Boom. The men of VI unanimously find that ‘a l*l’.
René now: “Last time, Paul wanted to convince Johan that he was wrong, but that didn’t make much sense. But that’s not our program at all. If he says something, the best I can say is, “Well, I don’t think so,” but who cares if he says that? He’s 74.”
Editor in panic
The gentlemen themselves are therefore not the easiest. René: “I arrived here two days ago and the editor-in-chief came up to me and said: ‘René, we have quite a problem. We don’t have subjects and we can’t get people.’”
René almost wanted to give up. “I said: ‘Well, friend, I’m going to go to The Harbor Club tonight, what can I do! Then I’m not going to sit here!’ Then you’re just wasting your time here!”
Who was on that broadcast? “No idea! Wierd Duk! And that dick was there too, you know (political journalist Sam Hagens, ed.)! Yes, I don’t think it’s a dick, Johan thinks it’s a dick, but that doesn’t matter!”
‘How further?’
René is quite concerned. “Sometimes when I’m sitting in the garden, I think: how should we proceed right away? If we and no people can get…”
Hans Kraay Jr. and Jan Boskamp can return, right? “They can indeed come back, but Johan does not want that.”
And what about Wouter de Vries, the brother of Peter R. de Vries? Johan: “Yes, but René forgets to say that… We also often have people join us here and they have nothing to say at all.”
Wilfred Genee to Johan Derksen: “A list has been made and you have scratched off a lot of names.”
Tonight Hélène Hendriks is the main guest in Today Inside.