Even about the second episode of BOOS about The Voice of Holland

Image: Youtube BOOS

‘That’s not nice at all’ you hear Paul Römer saying on the phone to Tim Hofman. He just came out with his team from BOOS with a new episode about The Voice of Holland. And Paul Römer is absolutely right about that: what was revealed in this episode is anything but nice.

In the first episode, we saw how John de Mol took a seat opposite Tim Hofman to answer his questions about the sexually inappropriate behavior within The Voice of Holland — specifically the accusations against Jeroen Rietbergen. John de Mol was very clear about this: he only knew since 2019, and he was aware of only one victim.

And it seems that this is not entirely the truth, because the BOOS team has now heard from four victims that they have also reported. And the three who were not recognized by John de Mol, ITV, and Talpa now feel quite angry, disappointed, and sad. It’s logical: you dare to report something so serious and intense, and then it’s as if your entire report doesn’t exist.

Unfortunately, John de Mol chose not to sit opposite Tim Hofman again — even though he had previously said he would. And while the BOOS team actually has very simple questions: what happened to those other three reports? Did John de Mol know about this? Or did Linde de Jong (Creative Director) and Rick Brug (Manager Operations, business director according to De Mol) only tell John de Mol about one victim? These reports were made to this Linde.

And I personally want to give that Linde an award for the most unsympathetic person in this entire BOOS episode. It’s quite impressive how polite Tim Hofman could remain on the phone with her. She absolutely did not want to speak to anyone, just like Rick Brug and the entire ITV and Talpa. Missed opportunity, because now it’s up to the viewer to draw conclusions… And those are, to stay in Paul Römer’s words, not nice.

By the way, I still find it striking that ITV was very pleased to release a statement that they have initiated an investigation conducted by an agency they selected. And exactly that investigation is what all parties involved want to wait for before making statements, although it doesn’t sound — to my ears — like the most objective choice in terms of investigation.

Episode three of BOOS about The Voice of Holland? Something in me says that the last word on this has not yet been spoken.