What's on?

By Niniane Veldhoen on 23 January 2011

A typical Monday evening at our house:  matthijs and I both tired of our first workday of the week, and still not totally recovered from usually a full programmed weekend, our bellies round from a lovely meal either one of us could have prepared, sitting on the couch, fighting over the remote.

This Monday I let Ties win, and I ended up watching ‘de wereld draait door’ (DWDD), never my first choice, but when watching rather entertaining. There was an item on ‘boer zoekt vrouw’ that caught my attention and kept me wondering. Matthijs van Nieuwkerken leading the discussion with some good quotes as always, Jan Mulder commenting with his sharp weird comments as ever and at the table: Rene van Dammen, tvshow rating expert on the public station.

As you might know by now, ‘boer zoekt vrouw’ is a very well watched program, and last Sunday it reached a new rating point of 4.909.000 viewers. I think that we can all agree that that is a lot, but how come?
That was the question handled at the table of DWDD. 

Since the program started there have already been a lot of discussions on why this program is such a success, I mean there are many different other dating shows: ‘daten in het donker’ , ‘de perfecte partner’, ‘doe het zelf date’, ‘undercover lover’, ‘temtation island’, ‘the bachelor’, ‘de singles’, ‘take me out’, ‘alleen nog een man’, ‘beauty & de Nerd’ and so on.

A short top 5 to conclude why ‘boer zoekt vrouw’ is such a success (according to the volkskrant):

1. It is very authentic; you’re a witness of the most intimate moments of someone’s live, the beginning of a relationship. 
2. It’s fun because it is different than idols; you see the life behind the farmer, with all his clumsiness, that must be real. It’s different from the world were pictures and magazines are fake and manipulated, like were used to nowadays. 
3. It’s typical Dutch;  it’s almost like in the fifties where the women are behind the stove and the potatoes are on the table at six. A live very conveniently arranged like in the old days. 
4. It’s very cosy; many people watch it with their friends or family, and the next day at work you need to be a part of the conversation at the coffee table. 
5. It’s a brilliant format; in all its simplicity it is so much more. 

Also this time Jan Mulder tried to get the answer on why this program is such a success. And you can expect that the person doing research to program ratings and giving advice to program makers on how to make their show more appealing to the audience should have an answer to that question. So there I was, waiting for a good answer, but.. I didn’t get it! 

The first time Rene tried to give an answer: ‘.. the first episode of this season already got more ratings than the first episode of earlier seasons, there is a lot of publicity and ass I said before, it is just very amusing television..’Not quite an answer that you can expect of a researcher I would say. I wonder how my boss would react if that would be my answer to research, I think it is just fun. 

I mean there must be a deeper meaning there, on WHY it is fun to watch. Another example of quotes that really made me wonder his research methods and his knowledge on the topic.Apparently they can see at the second how many people there are watching, so they can point out the part ‘best’ (5,2 million) and ‘worst’ (4,8 million) watched. The explanation given for the ‘worst’ part:
a. inaudible part
b. you don’t see the faces
c. I think this part is not very interesting television, he wants to know why the women doesn’t care about the age difference, I think that is not very interesting. (not the public thinks, I did research, no.. I think)

With his explanation he really stays within the show, to the very words that are said.What I miss in this part is external factors as well. For example: maybe this part was after the commercial break (people have the tendencies to check other channels in the break) and people weren’t back in time. 

Jan Mulder obviously got annoyed as well, so he said: ‘.. maybe it was too exciting, there was a chance of rejection, and maybe people didn’t want to see that..’.
Rene: Nonsense, how would you know, you don’t watch the show.
Mulder: I’m just trying to search for an explanation.
Rene: Sometimes the clumsiness of the farmers is very interesting, in this point I didn’t thinks so. 

At the end of the conversation Jan tried it one more time, ‘..Why is this program so successful?’
Rene’s final answer: ‘.. I will talk to you after the show, if you don’t have the feeling of why this is an exciting program it is hard to explain, you just have to have the feeling..’

End of discussion.

Is that research? Giving your own personalized opinions? I have seen the show, so now I am an expert? You just have to have the feeling?? Not once he spoke about the research. Not once he gave a clear answer to why ‘boer zoekt vrouw’ is a success. I would love to read some of his research reports. 

Maybe I should fight harder for the remote next time and watch ‘boer zoekt vrouw’ myself, because apparently if you watch it you can get “the feeling” and all your questions are answered. I wish al research was this easy. 

Watch episode

tagged with: boer zoekt vrouw, de wereld draait door, succesfactors, tv, research

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