After a painful week in which it became clear that Op1 will probably go down due to arguing, the talk show made a fine insert broadcast on Saturday. “We are alive and kicking!”, says Jan Slagter.
It rumbles behind the scenes of Op1. The chief bobo of the program, Bert Huisjes, arouses quite a bit of resentment. It is so bad that BNNVARA has decided to stop. Now only EO, MAX and WNL remain as participating broadcasters. So that show will be a kind of evangelical senior citizens club with a touch of populism.
Chest throbbing Bert
Tijs van den Brink (EO) and Sven Kockelmann (WNL) gave a preview on Saturday. They made an excellent Op1 broadcast about the uprising in Russia. That was a great success with an average of 861 thousand viewers.
Bert immediately made himself heard. “Wonderful result for the collaboration between EO and WNL in Op1. The journalistic team did a great job on a historic day. With more than 36 percent market share and a striking assessment of TV connoisseur Tina Nijkamp,” he tweeted.
Also Jan lyrical
Omroep MAX boss Jan Slagter also continues to have rock-solid confidence in Op1: “Nice figures for Op1! Good cooperation between EO and WNL! Editorial staff did a fantastic job. Op1 is alive and well, its existence is beyond dispute, despite all the comments from all ‘experts’ over the past week.”
Bert van der Veer, former director of Pauw & Witteman, does not understand this kind of tweet. “Good thing that an extra broadcast of the NPO 1 talk show was inserted about developments in Russia, but did the promo really have to mention that it would be a collaboration between EO and WNL? Who the f… cares?”
Free spots
The entire Op1 affair is a blessing for public broadcasting, says Bert opinion channel. “There are holes in two crucial places (because how long will Nadia survive?). Clean slate, start over. Late night will have to find its way back to basics – watch some episodes of Pauw & Witteman.”
He continues: “You can’t have a better example for the eve than DWDD. But with regular presenters. No matter how risky. The list of names is in my safe.”
Rapping Sem
Volkskrant reviewer Alex Mazereeuw is also not that impressed with the chest-thumping of the remaining Op1 bobos. That cut-in broadcast was simply “news television you’d expect from the premier talk show on the major television channel,” he writes.
He continues: “But we saw that a normal Op1 broadcast is usually quite abnormal three days earlier, when the same Kockelmann had a hilariously stupid conversation with singer Xander de Buisonjé and his son Sem van Dijk.”
Uncomfortable
Sem, also Wendy van Dijk’s son, has made a remix of his father’s big hit Hou Me Vast. “What followed was startlingly uncomfortable television, culminating in a live performance where everything was funny: the discomfort of the other guests at the table, the intimate glances between father and son, and especially everything Sven Kockelmann does.”
No, Op1 has had its day, Alex decides. “Writing about Op1 is no longer even fun for a screwed-up talk show nihilist, because the program is only worth mentioning if the editors once again invite a dubious influencer, a rapping fake baby or Sinterklaas Jan Slagter.”