Arjen Lubach is a Dutch comedian who gained international fame with his show Zondag met Lubach (Sunday with Lubach). This show held every Sunday evening discussed news with a comedic twist, similar to American formats like The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight and the Colbert Report. Lubach became most famous for his short skit America First, The Netherlands Second, and we wrote about him before. But then, Zondag met Lubach ended – the show had its last seizoen (season), and everybody wondered what was going to happen next. Lubach was going to do new things, that much was certain, but was this beloved format over? As it turns out… It couldn’t be more alive!

De Avondshow

On February 21, 2022, it was time – the first Avondshow met Arjen Lubach (Evening Show with Arjen Lubach). It is basically the same concept as before, but with a few tweaks. Now that there are guests in every episode, it feels more like The Daily Show or Conan than Last Week Tonight. And that’s also because it’s cadence changed from weekly to 4 times a week.

Guests so far have been Bekende Nederlanders (famous Dutch people) including Ronald Goedemondt, Brigitte Kaandorp, Maarten Keulemans and Kim van Kooten. While the interviews still feel a little awkward, I’m sure with time it will all be smoothened out! And it does give space to one-on-ones with these people that are less common in the Netherlands. You are more likely to see tafelrondes (“table rounds”, talk shows where people sit at a table and have conversations), like De Wereld Draait Door.

However, there are things that have stayed the same. An introductory monologue, akin to Stephen Colbert’s, discusses what happened in the news. This is followed by a single more in-depth topic. The final part of the show is the aforementioned interview.

The Topics

Photo by Brandon Nelson on Unsplash

The oorlog (war) in Ukraine could of course not be avoided, so the very first and second monologue, linked above, discuss it, and it was a topic all week. But in-depth topics are diverse, like cruiseschepen (cruise ships) and how vervuilend (polluting) they are for the natuur (nature). Or how Dutch broadcasters aren’t handling the Olympische Spelen (Olympic Games) held in stomme landen (stupid/dumb/shitty countries – stom is a word that probably deserves its own post!) very well.

Overall, it looks like Lubach is back with more wonderful satire (satire), and with even more than before! You can follow the fragments of the show on the YouTube Channel (which is the same one as Zondag met Lubach, it was just renamed) or the full episodes at NPO Start.

Have you watched the new show with Arjen Lubach? Do you like it? Let me know in the comments below!