Wilfred Genee owes his success, and therefore his mega salary, largely to Johan Derksen. He is the trendsetter of Today Inside, but what if he stops? “Then things will go quickly.”
It seems that Wilfred Genee did not go to the new Talpa boss without reason with the request to do more programs in addition to Today Inside. “I think Wilfred rightly feels that it is good to expand beyond what he does at Today Inside,” analyzes VI expert Victor Vlam in The Communicados.
75 year old Johan
Wilfred currently only does the talk show Veronica Offside and the radio show The Friday Move in addition to VI. “But yes, in order to maintain his career prospects in the longer term, I really think he has to do things on the side. Because at the moment his entire career is somewhat tied to 75-year-old Johan Derksen.”
Wilfred’s career is too linked to that of Johan, who is celebrating his 75th birthday today, Victor believes. “I would like to challenge everyone to think of one program that was a success, which Wilfred presented and which Johan Derksen was not in. I actually don’t think anyone can imagine it, to be completely honest.”
Lots of failures
According to Victor there is none. “He has tried a lot. He has the interview program ‘What is going through your mind now?’ done. Well, that wasn’t a great success in terms of audience figures. Who can still remember the Matchwinner quiz? But not really a great success either. Café Hendriks en Genee was not really a great success either.”
These were all programs that Johan was not in. “So there’s a lot of things he’s tried and ultimately none of it has been successful.”
‘Can be ready quickly’
Wilfred knows how to ‘suck’ and ‘stoke’ excellently in VI, according to Victor. “The problem, however, is that those qualities don’t seem to translate well to other programs. And that means that it can end quickly for him, of course. In the TV world you can rise quickly, but you can also fall very quickly.”
And if Johan stops soon, Wilfred could be out of date very quickly, according to Victor. “It is not so clear what he will do after Johan Derksen stops, so he has to broaden his scope now.”
“Get on with it!”
Apparently Wilfred feels this very much himself, given his exploratory conversations with the new boss, according to Victor. “My advice would certainly be to absolutely continue with that. Continue to develop yourself.”
He concludes: “I think he is under a lot of pressure to come up with something that is separate from Johan and that is still a success…”