The Sinterklaas news will be broadcast on Monday evening for the first time this year. Merel Westrik presents the program as a replacement for Dieuwertje Blok, who is absent due to illness. Art Rooijakkers thinks that 45-year-old Westrik will do excellently.
The fact that not Blok, but Westrik is presenting the Sinterklaas news this year, makes it “extra special” for Rooijakkers, father of twins Puk and Keesje. “Dieuwertje is really a rock star in our house and I think that applies to many other children in primary schools,” says the TV presenter in Goedemorgen Nederland on NPO 1.
“She will be missed, but Merel is a really good replacement. I’m very curious to see how she will fall. I already saw in a promo that Merel briefly contacted Dieuwertje. I think I recognize Dieuwertje in her warm, pleasant, pleasant – almost motherly way – of presenting and the way she sat there.”
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Power of the Sinterklaas news
Rooijakkers and his children are glued to the TV on Monday evening. He is already preparing his chest for what is to come. “I hear the joke that one Pete makes during an episode in the house for months. Last year my children said: ‘Dad, come!’ Then I came up to them and they said, ‘Thanks for coming…’
According to Frits Barend, journalist and former TV maker, the power of the Sinterklaas news is that children continue to watch the program well into old age. “I always found it fascinating to watch, first with my children and later with my grandchildren.”
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By: Tom Dieleman