It is a big downer for Simon Zijlemans: his talk show VTBL was taken off the tube by RTL 7 yesterday with immediate effect. “Wilfred Genee thought: I’ll bite that rabbit and let him bleed to death.”
It is a bit strange: RTL 7 and Veronica decided this season to program a new talk show about football directly opposite each other, every Monday and Friday at 8.30 pm. Where Veronica Offside with Wilfred Genee is doing well, VTBL with Simon Zijlemans put down horror ratings.
VTBL of the tube
Simon was canceled by RTL after the 40,000 viewers last Friday. The channel has decided to remove VTBL from the tube after six episodes. It is striking that Simon was going to present the program alternately with Frank Evenblij, but he will only make his debut next Monday due to holidays.
AD media journalist Marcus den Blanken: “How often would it have happened that someone was going to present a program, but that the program was already taken off the tube before its debut?”
‘This is what Wilfred wanted’
Columnist Marcel van Roosmalen thinks Wilfred was after this all along. “I think Wilfred started presenting that talk show Veronica Offside purely, that he deliberately did it to disable that VTBL. That he’s been like, ‘Wait a minute, is there going to be another talk show? Can I destroy that? Let me destroy that.’”
He is a cunning man, continues Marcel in his podcast Weer Een Dag. “Wilfred Genee is a wolf. He saw a bunny on the road and he thought: hey, management of Talpa, Marco Louwerens, come here. And then: ‘I’ll bite that rabbit in the neck and let it slowly bleed to death. I’ll eat him all the way after that.’”
Wilfred effect
Jordi Versteegden, media reporter for De Telegraaf, thinks it is logical that Wilfred has won. “I think it’s the Wilfred effect. People are used to him and know how to make a football talk show. So people just tune in to that,” he says in the newspaper’s culture and media podcast.
The viewer wants to have a good time, says Jordi. “They also like atmosphere. I think that’s the big difference between VTBL and Veronica Offside. It’s a bit more of a pub-like atmosphere at Wilfred and it’s a bit more serious on RTL 7.”
Unavoidable
The makers of VTBL receive various statements of support. “Inevitable, but of course it always sucks for the makers. Good luck, Simon Zijlemans”, says Rob Goossens, for example.
Telegraaf presenter Wilson Boldewijn: “The question whether there is still room for another football talk show has been answered. Apparently the market is saturated.”
