Nico Dijkshoorn has not sat at the table at Today Inside for a while. What happened to him? And will he come back? Johan Derksen has no idea. “I’m not about that.”
The guest policy of Today Inside and Hélène Hendriks’ Oranje talk show is one black box: no one knows exactly who decides and as a guest you can just leave without announcement or confirmation. Consider, for example, Jack van Gelder who is out at Hélène and Victor Vlam who is no longer welcome at VI.
Where is Nico?
What about Nico Dijkshoorn? Johan Derksen says he has no idea. “Yes, people all think that I decide who the guests are, but an editor does that and I see on a planning board in the editor who is on the list,” he says in the podcast Greetings from Grolloo.
The television mustache continues: “Nine times out of ten when I go to Hilversum, I don’t know who I will find in the evening, so I’m not that involved.”
Foolish opinions
The VI gentlemen do have influence and a veto, but they are not responsible for planning, says Johan. “Every now and then we have discussions about whether certain people should sit there, but it is not the case that I decide who sits.”
Does he want Nico back? “Nico is entertaining. You don’t have to have him every week, but Nico is not very attuned to current events, but he has very silly opinions about trivial things and he can talk about them in a contagious way.”
Argument with chef
Johan and Nico have a long history together. “I once placed Nico at VI, because he was a columnist for the Volkskrant and I believe he got into an argument with the head of the sports editorial team and was summarily thrown out.”
“When I heard that, I immediately called and committed to VI and he is still the nicest columnist in VI.”
