Peter van de Veer is very disappointed with VRT

Pieter van de Veer told broadcasters Robin Kiert and Kawthar Ahloush that many years ago he was asked by TV show maker Camille de Bruijn to host the program Sorry for Everything. He thought it was a genius concept at the time, so he was immediately drawn to it.

He was very involved in the preparations and enjoyed recording a test episode immensely. “It was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my television life,” he says.

When Camille went to sell the format to VRT, he was told that they had already received a similar offer from another production house. However, this proposal did not come to fruition with the other production company, while Camille’s proposal remained in the drawer.

A year later he showed it again on VRT with success. “We’ll make it, and your name is on it,” Peter was told. However, after a while there seemed to be a complication.

After all, “Eurosong”, which Peter also performed, will be broadcast on Sunday, just like “Sorry About Everything”. “The program director — someone I have since forgiven, but was very angry with — told me that was why I couldn’t do a ‘sorry for everything.’”

“We don’t give two Sunday evening programs to one presenter,” was the reason, even though the two programs were not broadcast in the same slot. “And then that turned out to be completely wrong.”

It was Adriaan Van den Hoof who got the job instead of Peter. It was a huge disappointment. “I was allowed to present a lot of shows, and that wasn’t the problem. But I was in the front row and I got a taste of it. I thought: ‘Just let me try this.’