Johan Derksen fears that the supporters of Today Inside do not understand the Curaçao edition of the program. “It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth,” he says.
Despite all his objections, Johan Derksen has changed tack: he and his colleagues from Today Inside are going to Curaçao to broadcast their program from there for two weeks. Not during the Football World Cup in Canada, the United States and Mexico, but before. To get in the mood, Wilfred Genee explained earlier.
Corendon trip
Johan is going reluctantly, he says in the podcast Greetings from Grolloo. “I don’t see the point of it. There is a World Cup in America. If you sit there, it has a purpose. Or in Canada. But Curaçao is simply a commercial deal between Talpa and Corendon. They want to sell trips to Curaçao, they have hotels there and flights there.”
“And for fourteen days – they initially wanted four weeks, but that is too long for me and that is why Hélène Hendriks is now doing the other two weeks – that we do Today Inside there. I don’t like that in relation to the Dutch viewer. We simply have an excellent studio in Hilversum, where we make all the programs.”
Hawaiian shirts
That studio is fine, says Johan. “And now we suddenly have to go to Curaçao to shoot the beautiful picture for Corendon with the sea in the background, the hotel beautifully in the background and we are sitting there wearing Hawaiian shirts with large glasses of beer and wine. I think it is a bit showy compared to the Dutch people.”
He continues: “The people are having a hard time in the Netherlands and then the spoiled gentlemen from Today Inside have a paid holiday in Curaçao. I am not happy about that, but Wilfred and René are very enthusiastic and I don’t want to ruin the atmosphere or sabotage things.”
Advertisement
Johan also does it because John de Mol makes money from it, he continues. “If John de Mol makes money from it and he has to pay us, then he has the right to do that. Because he agrees with it, he will make money from it, but I still feel like a kind of advertising pillar for Corendon for a fortnight.”
He continues: “I have nothing against Corendon, but I think it’s pointless to go there and I don’t think the public understands it either.”
School trip
Johan is not looking for an exuberant atmosphere at all. “It has the atmosphere of a school trip and I have been working with a lot of people in Hilversum for almost thirty years, and I can work with them very well, but I have no need at all to hang out with them privately. You get such a whole group.”
He concludes: “We’re done at 6 p.m., because it’s 11 p.m. here and then of course there’s going out and stuff. It’s all not for me. I don’t think it’s a good idea and I also think people don’t respond to it. It leaves me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.”
