(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[entertainment] It's Friday night on NRK. In First & Last, Fredrik Skavlan has a visit from the Swedish actor Peter Stormare, and rounds off the conversation by telling Stormare that there is a Norwegian presenter named Christine Koht. "She is making a series about the Norwegian nuclear family. It premieres here on NRK1 this Monday, but we will treat ourselves to a small clip already now. "
After NRK has shown what NRK will show on Monday, Christine Koht enters Skavlan's studio to tell if the work with NRK will show. She's not the only one.
- No corporate thinking
The week before, Arne Scheie and two of the participants in Kvitt or double stopped by. The week before there again, Atle Antonsen told about the NRK series Etaten, and the week after Christine Koht we will see clips from Melonas' new series – "NRK current later this autumn", according to Skavlan.
So we ask Marianne Torp Kjærulf in the First & Last editorial staff:
- Why do you have people from other NRK programs as guests?
- It's because we think they have an interesting and fun material to come up with. Christine Koht has actually been with us twice, and that is because she is someone who is working on her very own projects and has a lot on her mind, says Torp, who believes that they do not primarily go by celebrity status.
- When it comes to Kvitt or double, we chose not to include the host Nadia Hasnaoui, but angled on two participants and judge Arne Scheie.
- Is this part of a strategy to create buzz about NRK's productions?
- We do not pursue group thinking. We had people from TVNorge's Heia Tufte before it broke through, and Thomas Numme and Harald Rønneberg from TV 2's Senkveld have also stopped by. We discuss the issue in the editorial office, and are careful about including people from the NRK system.
- Can there be too much reuse?
- It can. I do not think we have had it, says Torp.
We shall soon see that TV 2 is not much better than NRK. In fact, they are worse. But first we ask media writer Hanne Bruun at the University of Aarhus:
- When did it become the task of the television channels to make entertainment of their own entertainment?
- This is of course part of today's hysterical look at the viewership figures. In the happy days of the monopoly, people were indifferent to such things. Then there was actually a program on Danmarks Radio called "Next week's TV", and it was – funny enough – very popular. Today we get these flavors all the time.
- Is this an unethical practice?
- No, I do not think so. But I understand well that people react to it. As a viewer, you feel a little cheated. You will not know anything new, except that there will be something else you can look at later.
- Has there been any debate about this in Denmark?
- Not in connection with the chat programs. The debate has to a greater extent focused on the use of their own journalists as experts in news broadcasts, such as that the US correspondent is also a US expert, and that they make a big news out of a documentary that comes later in the evening. The more serious players are thus not much better.
At TV 2 it's hard not to see what's going on. Bård Eriksen is project manager for Senkveld and Good evening, Norway, two programs that so far this fall have been visited by TV 2 celebrities such as Johan Golden and Henrik Elvestad, Finn Schjøll, Kari Jaquesson, Zahid Ali, Silje Stang, the channel's values and Should we dance participants. Why?
- All these names have been guests when they have been relevant with new programs, a new CD, have been voted out, or the like. They are also people that the TV viewers at home have a relationship with, says Eriksen.
Interesting celebrities
He adds that Good evening, Norway is very celebrity-based.
- And TV faces will of course be very interesting for a celebrity program. This is at the expense of performers from narrower arenas such as theaters and revues. When it comes to Senkveld, we emphasize that the guests should be good at talking to themselves, and people who are used to being on TV are just that, says Eriksen.
- You are not afraid that viewers will get tired of the same snouts?
- There is always a danger of that. But I think that these two newsrooms are good at varying and finding exciting people, says Eriksen.
Anne Lindmo in NRK's Large studio did not have one NRK celebrity visiting this fall. She is impressed with TV 2's determination:
- TV 2 is completely raw on this, especially on Fridays. They manage to create a seamless TV night where they guide viewers from one program to another – of course to prevent leakage to other channels. Thomas and Harald from Senkveld come in at the end of Shall we dance. And then there are dancing lions in Senkveld, and preferably one from Hotel Cæsar. Then there will be TV after TV about TV all the way. Such recycling is not for us.
- Why are you so bad at recycling?
- It is not suitable at all with us, we rather dig up some unexpected TV guests and have success with it. Once we wanted to have Anne-Kat with us. Hærland, but chose to drop it, because she is a Friday face in NRK. On the other hand, we chose to include Finn Schjøll and Eirik Newth to shed light on how the TV medium creates its own celebrities – how a glazed-curled gardener and a short-astrophysicist can become national philosophers and finally run an extra round on the celebrity carousel by whizzing into Shall We dance. What's next?
- But is it not logical that TV viewers are interested in other TV programs?
- Yes, by all means, the king and princes of Friday night would not have done this if it chased viewers. Then it would probably end quickly. It is the numbers that count, Lindmo thinks.
