Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has received plenty of offers for a return to television, but he is not responding. Why is that anyway? Good friend Bart Chabot knows…
After his failed marriage with BnnVara and his failed engagement with RTL, Matthijs van Nieuwkerk seems to be completely done with television. Both Today Inside and Omroep MAX would like to work with him, but the presenter is holding back. And according to his good friend Bart Chabot, that is not surprising at all…
Holy Grail
Bart thinks that Matthijs is done with TV. “I know that there have been no concrete conversations,” he says Story. “And perhaps television is no longer the path that Matthijs should follow. I don’t know if that will make him happier.”
What do you mean? “Look, a lot of people think that working in television is the Holy Grail. But it also causes a lot of stress. You could see that in Matthijs. And in that world people are also very busy with each other.”
Stress-free
Nowadays, Matthijs wants to avoid stress at all costs, Bart knows. “I wish Matthijs a life in which he is very happy, and especially without stress. And that we remain in each other’s lives. I want to continue working as long as possible. Not only as a writer, but also continue to perform with Matthijs.”
Together with Matthijs and Nico Dijkshoorn, Bart performs the literary performance Bob Dylan Does Not Exist. “When I saw Matthijs struggling with what to do after his retired TV career, I occasionally whispered some advice to him. One of my ideas was to organize this literary performance.”
Wounded animal
Matthijs surprised last weekend with a TV interview with Ivo Niehe. It was clear that agreements had been made not to talk about DWDD, says Albert Verlinde RTL Tonight. “What you see is that Ivo tries to link their friendship to what happened. At that moment you can really see that Matthijs is disappointed.”
“Then you almost see a wounded animal. You see him really touched: here we go again. Especially when Ivo asks: ‘Did you have more than one friend?’ You could almost see him looking like: I don’t want to talk about that at all.”
Shame
Ivo did not want to sell the images to other channels. “I also understand that it was negotiated between Ivo and Matthijs, like: listen, I don’t want a clip to appear in all programs. I also understand that you do that, right?”, says Albert.
Host Humberto Tan concluded: “I think it’s a shame, because I mean: why not? You choose to have your story heard on TV, you’re a TV man. You know that TV will react. I still think it’s a shame…”