RTL Boulevard thinks that SBS 6 would do better to cancel Chateau Bijstand at the last minute. “It is not possible at the moment,” says entertainment expert Aran Bade.
It seems that the Meilandjes are burying their TV career with their own hands: they start on Monday with their TV program Chateau Bijstand, but poverty entertainment is no longer so good in 2022. Not at all now that the war in Ukraine is leading to massive energy poverty in the Netherlands. It is currently all about 630 thousand households†
TV accident
Painfully enough, it is SBS 6 itself that already shot Chateau Bijstand in the foot before the first episode. On Friday evening Johnny de Mol had two items about poverty on the menu in quick succession: first the harrowing story of two women on benefits, then the Meilandjes who make entertainment out of poverty.
RTL Boulevard star Aran Bade can only draw one conclusion. “Actually, HLF8 showed in one episode that poverty is not a play, but a harsh reality in the Netherlands. I was really looking at some kind of accident. (…) Immediately afterwards came the poverty entertainment of the Meiland family. And yes, that just goes down the wrong way.”
‘It’s not possible!’
SBS 6 is shredding its most important TV stars, Aran fears. “It is not possible at the moment. We’ve just talked about the war, we’re all talking about inflation and energy prices going through the roof. Can you make entertainment out of poverty? I really think this format has run out.”
Chateau Assistance can better be guided to the decline, Aran thinks. Just like RTL 4 did during Black Lives Matter with Joling and the Foreigners. “SBS 6 should have said, ‘We’re going to stop doing this, we’re not going to broadcast this.’ The Meiland family has done their best with honest intentions, but it just doesn’t fit.”
caricature
RTL Boulevard host Daan Nieber thinks that the Meilandjes are not at all suitable for this kind of reality TV. “Is it only related to the situation we are in now or does it also have to do with the fact that the Meiland family is perhaps a bit too caricatured for this subject?”
Aran: “Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head with that. A lot of people have been saying to me lately – because I’ve known the Meiland family ever since they opened the chateau – like: ‘Aren’t they up? Has the shelf life of the Meiland family run out?’ I think the Meiland family should not play a role on TV and they do a bit here.”
Pushed in front of bus
TV expert Rob Goossens has the idea that Johnny de Mol deliberately threw the Meilandjes in front of the bus. “At the beginning of the broadcast, he really set the contrast between two people who really know what it is like to live on welfare and then the Meiland family, who made it a kind of outing. Of course that is a conscious choice.”
He continues: “What went wrong here is that the Meiland family has kind of been pushed in front of the bus, because what else do you have to say when two people have just told you what it’s really like? Then you sit there, you get a question about it.”
Relativity
The Meilandjes’ answers were wrong, says Rob. Very wrong. “Actually, you can only say: ‘John, if you’ve just heard those stories, there’s only one thing you can do and that’s to be quiet. We can only respect this, because we haven’t had it that bad at all.’ It’s only a month, they get a budget but no setbacks.”
“There was also not an ounce of perspective. I think that is what most went wrong, that Martien in particular really sat there as if he had experienced the war in Ukraine, while: what did he really experience?
disaster tourism
Aran: “What happened at HLF8 should also have happened to the management of Talpa beforehand, from: ‘It is so at odds with what is happening in reality, can we do this?’”
Daan: “It is disaster tourism.”
Aran: “The Meiland family was the goose that lays the golden eggs at SBS and they have to handle that much more carefully. They rigged this up so quickly.”
Rob: “This will simply damage the Meiland family, that is clear.”
What should the Meilandjes do? Aran: “They are best in their natural environment. Let them make a nice B&B, let them give those people a warm welcome with: ‘Oh how good!’ That is not the case here.”
Hand in your own bosom
Incidentally, Televizier journalist Jef Willemsen thinks that RTL Boulevard should also put a little hand in its own bosom: