Ronald Molendijk has no problem with nepotism in the TV world. He has been accused for years that he owes his TV job to Erland Galjaard. “Who cares?!” he yells.
Six years ago, Ronald Molendijk got a nice and lucrative job at television out of nowhere: he became a jury member in Idols and from then on he was also allowed to join RTL Boulevard every other day. Where did this ‘talent’ suddenly come from? It soon became clear: he is the best friend of Erland Galjaard, then the TV boss of RTL.
‘Who cares?’
At the moment Ronald is one of the regular faces of Shownieuws at competitor SBS 6. When did that come about? Just after Erland made the same transfer. It is very naive to think that these have nothing to do with each other, say critics. They find this kind of nepotism extremely bothersome.
Ronald does not care about that criticism. “The attack I regularly had during Boulevard was: ‘You’re only there because you’re a friend of Erland Galjaard.’ First of all, it didn’t go like that in practice, but besides that: who cares? MISCHA on NPO Radio 1.
Nepotism
Ronald has no problem with all that nepotism in the TV world. “If I were to just ask around me, ‘How did you end up at this company?’, I think nine times out of ten there is a friendly or family connection.”
Yes, if you ask around you at Talpa. And then it’s still on the low side. Ronald continues: “I don’t feel the need to defend myself against it. I especially feel sorry for people who don’t get that.”
Erland and Jeroen
Besides Erland, Ronald has an even more controversial friend: Jeroen Rietbergen, the Voice pervert who was kicked out in January by Linda de Mol.
Ronald remembers well what happened when the news about Jeroen’s behavior came out. “The editors of Shownieuws called me and said: ‘We really understand if you don’t want to sit at the desk tonight.’ I said, ‘So why not?’”
“Is he still welcome?”
Contact with Jeroen is now fine again, says Ronald. “I still call Jeroen. Why not? I also had to discuss it with my girl at home: ‘What do you think of this as a woman? Is Jeroen still welcome here?’ ‘Naturally!'”
He concludes: “As a person you are terribly poor if you have no friends and you do not understand that principle.”