The Temptation Island transfer – the ratings hit returns, but probably on Amazon Prime – will cost RTL many viewers. “How long can DPG allow Peter van der Vorst to remain stubborn?”
Peter van der Vorst, the TV boss of RTL, has shot himself in the foot with his slogan ‘Start Loving, Stop Hating, Be Sweet’. He has imposed such a high moral threshold on himself that the program boss would lose face if he started broadcasting all kinds of vulgar and potentially harmful television such as Temptation Island again.
Painful defeat
Peter stopped with that ratings hit because, according to him, it is ‘out of date’, but it now appears that a new season is in the making and that it will probably be purchased by Amazon Prime.
A painful and costly defeat for RTL, media columnist Mark Koster calls it. “This means that hundreds of thousands of viewers will disappear from Videoland to Amazon Prime. Moralism is wonderful on Sunday afternoon, but it ultimately does not pay the bills on Monday,” he writes in his column in The Telegraph.
Abacus
Sandra Hilster, the boss of Temptation Island producer Banijay Benelux, also found this out, Mark writes cynically. “She was previously the propagandist at Kro-Ncrv of the rallying cry that the world had to become ‘greener, sweeter and fairer’. As you can see: principles quickly disappear when the abacus stops ticking.”
Sandra gives in to the big money, but Peter continues to resist. The big question is: does the new owner of RTL, the Flemish DPG Media, allow this? “Anyone who asks around in the TV world and makes phone calls to producers hears soft grumbling. How long can Peter van der Vorst remain stubborn by DPG, the new boss of RTL?”
Gefröbel
You may wonder whether Peter is the right man for this place, says Mark. “RTL Tonight, where a number of DPG faces appeared as clues, is a drama. That fussing cannot last too long.”
He concludes: “You can deprive viewers of a guilty pleasure, but that doesn’t make the need go away.”