Erland Galjaard, Wendy van Dijk’s husband, suddenly left this month as a Talpa bobo. Did that really go well? “No. John de Mol is the emperor without clothes!”
For years they paraded through the streets of the Mediapark as RTL’s imperial couple: Erland Galjaard and Wendy van Dijk. He was the man who handed out the programs, she had the first choice as a presenter. For example, she demanded the presentation of Wie Ben Ik at the kitchen table. The reproaches of nepotism flew around them.
Bumblebees with John?
Erland and Wendy moved to Talpa together in 2019, but he suddenly left there this month and that is why, according to angry tongues, she must fear for her job. The official reason for his exit? “The time has come to devote more attention and time to other projects.”
But is he telling the truth here? Or is it just bumblebee with Talpa owner John de Mol? It seems that way, suggests format developer Kirsten Jan van Nieuwenhuijzen in his podcast Content Wars. He is a co-creator of programs such as That’s The Question and started his career as one of John’s first four creatives.
‘He’s not listening’
Kirsten Jan considers it quite possible that Erland was just fed up with John not listening to anyone anymore. For example, SBS 6 is currently broadcasting an extreme megaflop on Friday night, Avastars, purely because John is too proud to take his TV child off the tube. “It seems like John is not listening to people around him anymore.”
He continues: “There are a number of people there who have a lot of TV experience, such as Paul Römer. Erland Galjaard was there until recently. I understood that he left immediately, so something really went wrong there. And Erland Galjaard of course really had a track record at RTL, but even he couldn’t turn things around there.”
Exodus
Is there an exodus from Talpa? Jeroen Groot, creative director of content, according to Kirsten Jan also left Talpa. “That says something, doesn’t it? It seems as if they think: I don’t know if it’s any use what I’m still shouting. That’s how it feels a bit when you look as an outsider. From: does he still listen to the people around him?”
It’s just starting to get a bit embarrassing with John de Mol, according to Kirsten Jan. “It is a bit like the emperor without clothes on. That no one dares to say that he walks naked through the city.”
Cherry-picking
The big pitfall of John is that he cannot be a broadcaster and producer at the same time, thinks Kirsten Jan. “When Erland was program director at RTL, you noticed that he was a species cherry-picking did and took John’s best ideas but also rejected things. Now you notice that there is just a lot going on that is not good and that brings the channel down.”
Kirsten Jan, who says she is now blacklisted by Talpa, concludes: “John is 67, isn’t he? At a certain point you can wonder if it might be a bit over.”
Content Wars
The Content Wars podcast: