Albert Verlinde gets a big blow from Victor Vlam. He believes that the founder of RTL Boulevard is clearly on the decline. “This is so stupid. Nobody cares!“
It was a tough pill to swallow for media expert Victor Vlam: he was hit hard last week on Today Inside, the most popular talk show in the Netherlands. The men at the table are not big fans of media experts – previously Rob Goossens, Tina Nijkamp and their own table guest Angela de Jong also had to suffer – and now Victor was the loser.
Pilot light
Victor has spread a theory about the ‘left-wing’ choice of guests on the Hélène Hendriks talk show De Oranjewinter; he thinks that John de Mol consciously aims for this, so that SBS 6 does not become too conservative-populist in character. After all: the broader your target group, the higher the advertising revenue. But according to Johan Derksen, Victor is talking nonsense.
It is striking how eagerly table guest Albert Verlinde then jumped on top of it. He started attacking Victor on… his height. “He is also very small. Have you ever seen him, Victor Vlam? It’s more like a flame! He is very small! A pilot light! It’s really terrible,” he said.
Sweaty Victor
Victor saw the attack on his person happen live in VI and it made him very nervous. “I was watching it and I felt some sweat coming up, but at one point Johan Derksen is rudely interrupted by Albert Verlinde, who takes the stage in a big way and goes all out on me,” he responds in the podcast The Communicados.
At that moment, Victor has no idea what Albert is going to say. “I think to myself: oh, I wonder what he will say. And then I thought: what is he going to talk about, what is he going to attack me about? He then starts talking about the fact that I’m short… That I’m not that terribly tall!”
6 feet tall
That attack is not only factually incorrect, but also weak, Victor believes. “I’m 6 feet tall. That’s not that small. That’s quite average for a Dutch man. I really thought when I saw this on television: what a blunder on Albert’s part. What a huge blunder. First of all, it’s not true. So I’m not terribly small.”
Victor is just average. “Also: even if I were very small, is that something that would interest anyone in the world? I do not think so! I think most people who watch VI don’t spend all day on the internet following media news. They have a job and do serious things, so they have never heard of me.”
‘Nobody cares’
The VI viewer doesn’t know him at all, according to Victor. “The first thing they hear is: ‘He’s small’. I think a lot of people then shrugged their shoulders and thought to themselves: yeah, that really doesn’t bother me that much. So I thought, this is the least damaging attack you can ever make on me. It’s not interesting at all nobody cares!”
What a weakness on Albert’s part, he thinks. “I thought to myself: Albert, you go and you go and you keep going on this. It keeps going on about my height! So I’m like, I don’t think this is a very strong attack. If you are contradicted live there on the broadcast (by Raymond Mens, ed.): not smart, Albert! Not smart!”
Lost sharpness
Co-host Lars Duursma also doesn’t think it’s about anything. “Albert has lost his edge.”
Yes, Victor agrees. “The heyday of RTL Boulevard with Albert Verlinde is behind us. He was so incredibly influential and powerful. His tongue was so very sharp. I think we have seen that it has diminished a bit recently. He is no longer as sharp as he used to be.”
What does Johan think of Albert’s attack? “I think Johan Derksen fully agrees with this.”