By now, everyone with a modicum of fame in the Netherlands has participated in a show where secrecy is essential. This can range from the relatively innocuous concealment of the winner of De Slimste Mens to the extreme secrecy that is the subject of Wie Is De Mol (WIDM) and which eventually leads to the strangulation contracts attached to talent shows like The Voice Of Holland (TVOH). This means that basically everyone who is somewhat famous in the Netherlands has a secret.
In big secret shows like WIDM and TVOH, that secrecy is accompanied by a contract that binds the contestants to the 'contract partner' forever. That is the party with money and power, which maintains that secrecy against idiotically high fines, and which controls the further earnings that come from the fame gained. Someone who becomes a star through a format like TVOH is thus literally serfdom of the producer. Because the latter wants to secure its investment.
Scribblers
No wonder, really, that within such a setting of secrecy and serfdom, the balance of power becomes unbalanced. And in such a way that especially the little scribblers leaning against power feel they can afford anything. As it turned out. These men could go about their business uninhibited, because secrecy applied to everything to do with the programme, forever. So also the sexual assault in the broom cupboard.
So it is also no wonder that no one from well-known Holland can comment too much right now on what is happening in the studios and around them, because their contracts are still valid. Those will only open their mouths if their contract partner releases them from it. But then all other signed clauses will also be invalid and the market will collapse.
Out of date
How next? Because of course there will be a sweep through the shows that enable abuse, or elevated it to a sub-theme of the formula. But we should perhaps ask ourselves whether this whole secrecy around cultural expressions like WIDM and TVOH is still of our time. The big-earning amateur talent industry is intimidating enough as it is, and it's actually crazy that amateurs ('contestants') are let loose in an arena where heavily trained and soaked lions are waiting for them, licking their lips. Feast for viewers, but at its core, of course, already as wrong as can be.
The use of amateurs by the professional entertainment industry is problematic anyway, because the relationship is unequal from the very first contact. Dependence and power are pitted against each other, enshrined in a leaden contract for life. And even though riches and fame may await the trembling amateur at the end of that tunnel, the way it is to be earned would be forbidden in ordinary business. No labour authority would accept what happens to these amateurs, and so it would be good if we put an end to these practices.
Abuse
That contestants on Who Is The Mole can expect a financial death squad on their doorstep when they tell what everyone knows, namely that the show is scripted from start to finish, is bad enough. But these are professionals who deliberately choose to cheat. With TVOH, transparency would be a lot more possible.
For the rest, it would be nice if the entertainment industry chose a future of equality, without the abuse of amateurs.
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