Renze Klamer suddenly has a sidekick on his talk show every night, but why is that anyway? “I think because they have come up with RTL: Renze is a bit colorless.”
In addition to Eva Jinek, RTL 4 needs no less than three presenters to keep things running during her mega holidays: Beau van Erven Dorens, Humberto Tan and Renze Klamer. As the first of this foursome – newsreader Roelof Hemmen not taken into account – Renze has now added a sidekick to his programme.
Suddenly a sidekick
Renze has been back on the tube since last week and he suddenly opens his broadcasts with a DWDD-like stool conversation, in which he has a chat with his sidekick on duty. “I find that interesting, because I think: why does he suddenly have a sidekick there?”, says TV expert Victor Vlam in his podcast The Communicados.
He continues: “I think that is a conscious choice by Ewart van der Horst, the producer. That is of course a genius television man, the architect of De Wereld Draait Door, but also of PowNews, for example, someone who put Today De Dag, the predecessor of Good Morning Netherlands, on the map.”
‘Renze is colorless’
According to Victor, Ewart is perhaps ‘one of the best producers of current affairs programs the Netherlands has ever had’. “I think this man has realized that Renze is relatively colorless. That is not necessarily wrong, because he is someone who can create atmosphere and someone who can ask good questions.”
He continues: “But it is not someone with a very outspoken personality. If that talk show is to succeed, then I need someone to add a little spice to it. And those are people like Maxim Hartman or Jan Jaap van der Wal. They are the type of sidekicks that add spice to that program.”
“I think they have come up with RTL, and so Ewart van der Horst: Renze is a bit colorless.”
Little sweet
Raymond Mens, who is making waves as an American connoisseur on television, agrees with that analysis. “Yes, Renze is also a bit sweet. That’s it I think. And that’s not a bad thing at all, because I just appreciate it. But yes, then you give it a little more spice.”
He continues: “I do think – and that is why I had not done it myself – that it is those same faces that come forward again. Then it’s Maxim Hartman again, then it’s that comedian again… Then I think: that’s a shame, you know. I’m not a fan of it myself.”
Not very original
It’s an easy choice, says Raymond. “It’s not very original. I get that he’s reaching for that, what you say, to create a little more spice. But it is also the feeling that you have the same people at the table again who are kicking in the same open doors.”
Victor concludes: “It is often to compensate for something a presenter is missing. And I think you got that clear here.”