rigged card
Van der Zandt passes his internship with a big ten. He is the smartest of the day no less than five times. And with a daily score of 593 seconds, he had the second highest score ever.
His decision to participate is brave. He explains: ‘The risk of demolition is enormous – if you don’t know anything, it’s better to just present. But if I win, it looks like a done deal. So I had to end up somewhere in the middle.’ We ask Van der Zandt about the win.
Herman, congratulations! It didn’t work to end up somewhere in the middle.
Herman: ‘No, that’s right, that also shows that the game cannot be controlled. Of course I wanted to do well, because I like a competition. And it was perhaps also a form of hedging to say that I would not be the smartest. But I had absolutely no expectation that I would succeed in winning.
People can think what they want about it now, you know. But people are quite suspicious. ‘You did it on purpose, didn’t you’, someone said to me recently in a café. I thought: Huh, what’s this about? This lady was of the opinion that I had deliberately let myself be played out (Van der Zandt dropped out in the sixth episode, ed.). She thought that I really could have known certain answers. As if I had steered how it would go and that I didn’t want to be the smartest. But I did.’
You have quite a bit of knowledge, how come?
‘I know a lot of facts. I have a long With the knife on the table presented. That helps enormously in gathering knowledge. There are a lot of the same kind of questions in there. You learn from every question and look up a lot about all kinds of subjects.
I was dreading the puzzle round, but it went pretty well. I know less about celebrities, films and series. There was a round about Matt Damon (actor, ed.), I didn’t know that.’
Did you propose your participation yourself?
‘A while ago I was asked. But every time I had a reason not to do it. Now that I’m going to present it, I thought it would be funny. A while back I invited Philip and Maarten to participate in With the knife on the table, which I presented then. Together with the editor-in-chief of The smartest person they came to the studio. I then suggested that they participate as a candidate The smartest person.
Actually, everyone was enthusiastic about the idea. Although I did say to the editors: What if I win, isn’t that stupid? But the editors didn’t think so at all. They said: you really shouldn’t hold back.’
Why did you want to participate?
‘My intention to participate was mainly to gain experience. How is this program made? And also to show that the atmosphere between Maarten, Philip and me is good and that there is no question of a hostile takeover. I also thought that was not unimportant. But for me too, the win is a very unreal outcome. Like: that can’t be right?!’
You seemed to be taken aback by the ‘Van der Zandt on the side’ campaign.
‘Well, they apparently wanted to get rid of me. And they succeeded, haha. In the sixth episode I played a day final for the first time, so I had to get used to it. I fell just under a second below Habtamu (de Hoop, ed.) which meant I had no tactical advantage.
That just wasn’t convenient, but not consciously. I was kind of in a mode of: this will be fine. But time is also ticking away and that is stressful.’
In the summer of 2025, Herman will take over the presenting baton from Philip Freriks. The two go back a while: when Herman joined the NOS news, Philip was the senior presenter there. And Maarten van Rossem is also no stranger. In 1995, Herman attended a lecture by Van Rossem on American politics.
Was it a party of recognition, there in the studio?
‘It may feel a bit tacky: I worked with one, and I had lessons from the other. We all get along well. By the way, I don’t get any preferential treatment and I am treated the same as the other candidates.’
Have you learned anything from Philip as a presenter?
‘Philip welcomes people to the program in a nice way and puts everyone at ease. That works well. Philip also teased me nicely every now and then. For me, it’s The smartest person presenting really differently than With the knife on the table. The studio is bigger and it’s with famous people.’
