The Connection attracts more viewers without Matthijs van Nieuwkerk

Particularly painful for Matthijs van Nieuwkerk: once again one of his old shows appears to score without him. The quiz The Connection even scores slightly better now that it is not in the picture.

© Annemieke van der Togt (l), Olivier Thijssen (r)

It is unbelievable how quickly Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has been almost erased by public broadcasting. Really all his programs have been successfully taken over by colleagues, with the exception of Matthijs Goes Door. But a replacement has now also presented itself: Eric Corton would like to take over that program.

Million viewers

Last night it was The Connection’s turn. The first episode of that quiz, with Patrick Lodiers as the new presenter, reached a score of more than 1 million viewers (24 percent market share), good for fifth place in the viewing figure top 25 and gold at half past nine in the evening. So a nice score.

Viewing figure expert Tina Nijkamp sympathizes with Matthijs, she writes in her daily analysis. “Patrick Lodiers scores well with The Connection: 1.030 million viewers is even slightly higher than the first episode with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. With the first episode of the quiz, on May 22, 2022, he scored 1.001 million viewers.”

Very painful

Poor Matthijs, Tina sighs. “Just like with the Top 2000 A Gogo, the program scores almost the same with a different presenter. And that is painful for Matthijs, although because he was/is also a format developer at producer Medialane, he will probably earn some money from the possible foreign sales of the format.”

Incidentally, lead-in Wie is de Mol did even better. More than 2.4 million people (41 percent) watched it. Ik Departure attracted about 1.2 to 1.6 million viewers after this hit show in previous weeks, says Tina.

Big loser

The other most viewed prime time titles were RTL 4’s Weet Ik Veel with 884 thousand viewers (16 percent), SBS 6’s The Tribute: Battle of the Bands with 777 thousand viewers (14 percent) and NPO 3’s MolTalk with 716 thousand viewers (15 per cent).

The big loser of the night? Tina: “The biggest viewing drama was yesterday for the Hart van Nederland train, Shownieuws and the weather. NOT in the top 25. How bad is that? TERRIBLY. For the expensive programs that scored above a million ten years ago, before the major John de Mol changes, a very sad score among 400 thousand viewers is a very sad score.”

Viewing figures

The viewing figures of Saturday, February 4, 2023 (SKO):

Top 15

Market shares (18-24h, 6+)

01. Who is the Mole (NPO1) 2,446,00001. NPO1 / 30.4%
02. Journal 20:00 (NPO1) 2,008,00002. RTL4 / 15.6%
03. News 18:00 (NPO1) 1,345,00003. SBS6 / 12.1%
04. Studio Sport Eredivisie (NPO1) 1,116,00004. NPO2 / 8.1%
05. The Connection (NPO1) 1,030,00005. NPO3 / 4.3%
06. EenVandaag (NPO1) 983,00006. RTL5 / 3.5%
07. I Know A Lot (RTL4) 884,00007. Vero / 3.0%
08. Skating NK Distances (NPO1) 880,00008.ESPN / 2.4%
09. Half past seven news (RTL4) 869,00009. RTL8 / 2.3%
10. Cyclocross World Cup NB (NPO1) 808,00010. RTL7 / 2.3%
11. Tribute Battle of the Bands (SBS6) 777,00011.NET5 / 1.8%
12. Serengeti (NPO1) 755,00012. ESPN2 / 1.4%
13. RTL Boulevard (RTL4) 735,00013. Paramount / 0.7%
14. MolTalk (NPO3) 716,00014. Discov / 0.7%
15. Women’s Cyclocross World Championships (NPO1) 700,00015. BBC / 0.7%

Market shares per channel group (18-24h, 6+)

More viewing figures at:

01. Public Broadcasting 42.8%
02. RTL Netherlands 24.2%
03. Talpa TV 17.5%

Programs that did not make it to the top 15 include Humberto on Saturday (558 thousand), Casino Royaal (378 thousand), Hart van Nederland (371 thousand) and Shownieuws (368 thousand).

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