He says he never wants to use the word comeback, because he ‘is still there’, but the fact remains that for Rolf Wouters – in addition to icons such as Henny Huisman and Ron Brandsteder, one of the great stars of the 1990s – changed in the media landscape since his television sabbatical.
In the podcast That’s why you stayed at home! Wouters looks back on his return and the SBS6 flop Split Screen which followed. „I am not a quiz expert, but the fact of that quiz was very nice. I was really convinced of that. But in practice I regretted that there was no room to tweak it a little more or make anything more than the quiz itself. There is a difference between a quiz and a TV show that also entertains.”
(Text continues below the video.)
‘Pretty sin’
According to Wouters, who says that an evaluation has never taken place, the program could have been tinkered with quite a bit. “I am sorry that I was not asked in advance to think about it. And once we were at it, there was no opportunity to give it another spin either. (…) That’s how it goes these days: something is tried, it doesn’t work and it is immediately discarded. That’s a shame in some cases. I sometimes see that with other programs as well.”
And according to the presenter, that is due to the renewed media landscape. “You have to look at how many people, for example, on YouTube or as an influencer do things in their own way and are very successful with it. Only, the medium of television requires something different. And that’s pretty hard to explain. Sometimes I see things on TV, especially when it comes to entertainment, and I think: it’s too much ‘format on paper’. And that’s not being carried out by the people who created the idea. The people in the picture have been brought in separately.”
(Text continues below the video.)
‘Mr Wouters’
That is less the case in a talk show, Wouters knows. “At least, in a good way. Then the personality of the host is omnipresent. And he will undoubtedly direct the editors, because otherwise it won’t work. That’s why Humberto for example other than Jinek† While they are, so to speak, sitting at the same table. That’s how it should be with entertainment. Paul de Leeuw is a good example of this, he gives it his signature. And that’s very good. And I miss that a lot with other, interchangeable, programs.”
It was indeed a confrontation when Wouters saw himself on TV two years ago. “Then I am afraid of that. Then that young, crazy man is no longer standing there, but suddenly ‘Mr Wouters’ is standing there.”