The 24th edition of ‘De Slimste Mens’ – the penultimate one under the leadership of Philip Freriks and Maarten van Rossem – made it clearer than ever that the program had run out of Dutch celebrities.
With a few exceptions, mainly celebrities from the B and C categories took their seats. Plus a number of participants I had never heard of. I’ll mention a TikTokker, a party singer, a podcast maker, a onlinepersonality (whatever that may be), an environmental activist and a Composer of the Fatherland.
By the way, I don’t mind at all. I come from a time when you could count the number of home-grown celebrities on two hands. You had Johnny Jordaan, Willy Alberti, Henk & Teddy Scholten, Coen Moulijn, Jan Cottaar and a few others. That was it. Game shows on television led by Theo M. Eerdmans and Kick Stokhuyzen were always played with random citizens.
I try to remember when the Dutch celebrities took over the TV. Not just through the games, quizzes and gossip shows, but also through the talk shows, reality TV, travel shows, commercials, lotteries, charities… you name it.
Waku Waku
In the early sixties you had ‘Wie van de Drie’ with more or less famous panel members like Guus Oster, Kitty Jansen and Erica Terpstra. As television started to play an increasingly important role in social life, the popularity and charisma of those panel members also became increasingly important: think of the national cuddly gay Albert Mol and the mysterious modest Martine Bijl.
But the real change must have started somewhere in the second half of the eighties. Programs like ‘Per Seconde Wijzer’ and ‘Twee voor Twaalf’ could start in the late sixties, early seventies with a teacher from Waddinxveen or a bank clerk from Sappermeer. But gradually it became the exception rather than the custom to have ordinary people on the tube.
I have the feeling that it really took off with ‘Waku Waku’. From that moment on, it had to be singers, actors, comedians, presenters, sports heroes, musical and soap stars. And preferably a bit pretentious troublemakers of the caliber of Paul de Leeuw, Bart Chabot or Fred van Leer.
The fact that the Netherlands is only a small country is now taking its revenge. Even if we occasionally borrow some famous Belgians like Goedele Liekens and Philippe Geubels, you keep seeing the same faces. And then a number of them quickly drop out, because they can’t keep their hands off (little) girls or want to beat up a supermarket employee.
The programme makers are therefore delighted when they suddenly manage to find a new face. Like opera singer Francis van Broekhuizen, who immediately wallowed lustfully in celebrity status after her appearance in Maestro. Or ‘Snollebolleke’ Rob Kemps. And they can do something. The entire Meiland family does nothing but move all the time and is simply celebrity by profession.
The scarcity was already noticeable for a few editions at ‘De Slimste Mens’. What celebrities could be found, belonged more and more to the second tier, such as Hysterica des Vaderlands Emma Wortelboer or the Political Partyhopper of the Fatherland Joost Eerdmans. And what about Auto-cue reader of the Fatherland Roelof Hemmen, who was eliminated after one round because the newsreader really knew nothing.
Now you can really be unlucky with ‘De Slimste Mens’. You only have to recognize eight Forgotten Vegetables. Or indicate which tree species it is based on their leaves. But Hemmen also proved on the new RTL4 moron game ‘Wat een Dag’ that he really is a true airhead.
Change
Herman van der Zandt, who will be presenting ‘De Slimste Mens’ from next year, recently announced that the format of the popular program may change. For example, it is questionable whether there will be another oracle like Maarten van Rossem. I hope that the forced search for pseudo-celebrities will be stopped immediately. Set a maximum of about five celebrities for the entire series and select the rest of the participants from people who have enthusiastically played the De Slimste Mens app in recent years.
Herman van der Zandt has already gained a lot of experience in that area with ‘Met het mes op tafel’. Ruben Nicolai also proves with his ‘Ik weet er alles van!’ that you can just as well make a knowledge quiz with ordinary people, like Chantal Janzen does with ‘Beat the Champions’ and Carolien Tensen with ‘Eén tegenhonderd’.
Leave all those so-called celebrities exclusively to Linda de Mol, Carlo Boszhard and Beau. Then our celebrities won’t have to show up in the studio as often and they will have all the time to bombard social media with their holiday snaps, birthdays, dinners, new haircuts, fitness exercises, made-up jokes and other trivialities.
