Tijs van den Brink, just like remaining bigwigs such as Bert Huisjes and Jan Slagter, remains a firm believer in the talk show Op1. “Shall we bet that we will still exist in a year?”
It rumbles behind the scenes of Op1. After the resignation of BNNVARA, ‘only’ three broadcasters are still involved in the daily late talk show of NPO 1: EO, Omroep MAX and WNL. It seems that a small group of people want to keep this failed talk show project on the tube and presenter Tijs van den Brink is also part of this.
Old viewers
Tijs was a guest at the fellow talk show last night Marcel & Gijs, where ratings expert Tina Nijkamp was critical of Op1’s scores. She: “That’s not going so well. Op1 also scores very old. No, Op1 is not going very well. Last Saturday you had a very good score and on Monday too.”
Is Op1 on the verge of collapse? According to Tijs, it is not too bad. “We are in a difficult phase. The editors work very hard. Last week there was a lot of bullshit and last Saturday my editor-in-chief called: ‘Shall we make an extra broadcast tonight?’”
‘In another year’
Op1 made an extra broadcast about the uprising in Russia last Saturday. “Then it turns out that such an editorial team can simply create a fantastic program within a day. If you can do that after a week like that, I think you can do something.”
Tijs has rock solid faith in his talk show. “Shall we bet that we will still exist in a year?”
‘Bet?’
Host Gijs Groenteman dares to take that bet. “Fine. On a racing bike?”
Tijs: “Well, that is quite a lot. I think we will still exist in a year.”
Gijs: “Okay, well, whatever, just have a bottle of wine. What do you think, Tina?”
Tina: “I do think that the viewing figures should be increased slightly and I would also advise to adjust the line-up slightly and to include some regular features. For example, this show also has a few regular features. That works well and I would advise Op1 that.”
‘Stubborn!’
Tijs reacts a bit peevishly: “We don’t want to ‘work’ properly, we want to make a good journalistic and substantive program.”
Marcel van Roosmalen finds it significant that Tijs does not accept Tina’s tips. “This is why you’re so down!”
Gijs: “That stubborn thing all the time.”