Thomas van Groningen named his baby Guus. Quite original, he and his wife thought. But what had he discovered? It is “the sixteenth most popular boys’ name,” said the political commentator. “Well – that’s disappointing.” “Haha,” said table guest Fidan Ekiz. “What does that say, eh,” said presenter Malou Petter, and then immediately answered her own question: “468 babies are called Guus, I see here.” “Well, ours is the nicest!” said Van Groningen. “Haha,” Ekiz said again, and then she said something that was completely drowned out by the program leader. When the tune was over, Van Groningen talked about how nicely baby Guus’ first name alliterated with his last name. “Guus van Groningen,” Petter agreed (two g’s! It was correct!). She continued to smile broadly as she moved on to the next topic in one breath. “Guys: The Netherlands is in an absolute crisis of authority.”
What about News of the daythe new current affairs program from SBS6 that includes both Heart of the Netherlands (Talpa) as The Telegraph cooperate? Petter left her post as NOS newsreader to present the show alternately with Art Rooijakkers. He in turn was poached from RTL. Their aim: “to represent a broad audience and to create a sound that appeals to many people.” In practice, that sound sounded like a somewhat braver support act on Monday Today Inside (also Talpa), especially due to the presence of permanent staff VI-guests Van Groningen and Raymond Mens. The first one was allowed to perform one of his favorite tasks that he had done until recently Café Kockelmann (WNL): discussing a tweet from Geert Wilders. He also reported that D66, GroenLinks-PvdA and Party for the Animals (‘just to name a few parties’) are not taking a constructive position and will ‘never reach Wilders’ supporters in any case. I don’t think they want that, either.” Later, Trump reporter Mens explained that we should “weigh Trump’s statements against his Trumps.” “It will be a fun two weeks for you,” Petter concluded, in view of Trump’s impending inauguration. “And four years!” said Human. That made the whole studio giggle again.
Seals
To now make the necessary switch from this gut television to something I much prefer to talk about, I will apply a new technique that I learned from Welmoed Sijtsma on Monday. He wanted in Good morning Netherlands (WNL) would like to talk about the Pieterburen Seal Center. To do this, she first had to put an end to an item about violence against service providers – a problem that her guest said needed a solution. “I don’t know if we will find him today,” said Sijtsma. “So please let’s move on to something more fun. Namely: seals.”
My turn: I don’t know what we’re going to do next News of the Day have to wear. So please let’s move on to something more fun. Namely: Winter Full of Love (RTL). The winter version of B&B Full of Love started a second season on Monday and immediately introduced an unexpected main character: the mother of one of the participants. Love seeker Mike (33) still lives with father Peter and mother Monique, which means that if you date Mike, you are also indirectly dating Monique. She helped her son choose candidates (requirements: no burnout, no borderline and preferably beautiful teeth) and immediately fell in love with the first lady who came along. Denise really had very white teeth (“They glow!”). “I’m just in love with her,” Monique admitted beamingly on evening one. Then the family sang “Happy Birthday” to two birthday dogs wearing party hats. And I can’t fill in anything for that broad audience News of the Day wants to achieve, but if we are talking about “a sound that appeals to many people”: give this person the sound of a dog’s birthday.