Thanks to TV’s Michael Harmstone for alerting us to this, we’re two months from Mol season and today Arvo released the cast photo.
Who are these people?
Probably most important, new host Rik van de Westelaken (middle) – newsreader, quiz show host, sometime host of Moltalk and winner of WIDM 2015 (discussed here). One of the ten celebs behind him will win money by completing tasks and uncovering which one of the ten is being paid to work against the team for our entertainment. But who is the mole?
- Nikkie de Jaeger – Dutch make-up Youtube star. Over 11m subscribers!
- Evelien de Bruijn – DJ and host.
- Jamie Trenité – Adventure and Science show host.
- Evi Hanssen – Flemish presenter, ex-host of Expedition Robinson.
- Rick Paul van Mulligan – Actor.
- Robert van Beckhoven – Professional baker.
- Merel Westrijk – Newsreader and morning show host.
- Niels Litooij – Electronic musical artist
- Sarah Chronis – Actress.
- Sinan Can – documentary maker.
And Michael points out that the WIDM Instagram has been dropping hints that they’ve gone to Colombia this year, although WIDM has a habit of splitting over a few places.
Not long to wait, usually it starts first week in January, and hopefully someone will be providing English subs. Ditto the Belgian version which will probably start around March. Exciting!
The hints so far:
“Bijna” – almost
“Oefening Baart Kunst” – practice makes perfect
“met de rug tegen de muur” – backs against the wall
“3.15.13.21.14.1
Dertien” – letters spell out COMUNA, so COMUNA 13 which is a landmark in Medellín.
First thought: This cast doesn’t read as attractive or as famous as the 2018 cast, but maybe that’s deliberate after all the less attractive people got booted early in WIDM18. Or as famous, really, but it feels like Jamie (son of Dutch acting royalty) and Evi are big gets and I wouldn’t be surprised if either of them are the Mole just to capitalise on the name recognition, like they did with Thomas a couple of years back. I kinda hope it’s Dutch Paul Hollywood though.
Also odd that in the year Rik starts hosting, there’s two newsreaders/journalists from rival channels.
Yay! And for those who are interested the WIDM Journals go on sale next week. Im still debating if I want to get one imported to the states because its a bit pricey.
it’s official: WWTBAM returns in Italy for 4 primetime episodes
I’ve recently started re-watching the first UK series and I can’t remember who the Mole is so it’s like watching it for the first time. I feel even more strongly now that Channel 5 should bring this back, it’s brilliant.
The thing I like about the Channel 5 series is the reunion show goes into a lot of detail about the hidden clues, which sadly seems much reduced in the current reunion shows of the international versions, but I do like how Wie Is De Mol puts together the clip sequence just prior to revealing The Mole.
Sadly that era of Channel 5 seemed to be ‘we’re prepared to give anything a go but not for too long!’, I would personally like to see another series of Jailbreak…oh and I’m sure Tim Vine is available for the grand comeback of Whittle!
I think the hidden clues tend to be a bit rubbish these days tbh so I’m not sure it’s a great great loss, although I hope there are some really clever and surprising ones this year obv. Probably quite difficult to come up with good ones 19 years straight.
The candidate fourth from the right appears to be called Merel Westrik, whilst the fourth from the left is named Evi Hanssen. Where did you get ‘Blackbird’ from??
Oh blimey, there is every chance Google Translate did the names without me realising.
https://wieisdemol.avrotros.nl/kandidaten/
Same thing happened to me when I went looking.
A whole bunch of black bird imagery as a hidden clue would fit WIDM’s approach though.
Hey guys. Marieke here.
Just to let you know, the hints so far have only been to get to this cast photo. ‘Bijna’ meaning almost had just that meaning. Oefening Baart Kunst refers to Kunst which means art. It referred to the piece of art on the wall. Met De Rug Tegen De Muur, with your back against the wall referred to the wall which had the murial and the number sequence lead to a route in Colombia where this photo was. https://twitter.com/mariekevanlith/status/1060513490539036673
The group is pretty diverse. A lot of people are complaining there aren’t many famous people but quite a few people are also saying this is a group where they know most people in recent years. It all depends on the target group. Robert is one of the judges on the Dutch version of The Great British Bake Off which makes him very famous to everbody that watches that. Nielson makes very poppy songs which not everybody likes and Nikkie (De Jager, might wanna take away the E to be exact;)) is a YouTuber so if you don’t follow her or are interested in make-up, you wouldn’t know her. But she is HUUUGE! I’m a bit nervous what this will do for my channel…. 😉 😉
So yeah the group is as it is every year. A whole bunch of people complain it’s not famous enough, and others know almost everybody. In the end, it doesn’t really matter…
It is confirmed they were spotted flying back from Colombia (well just Rik) so we’re pretty sure it will at least end in Colombia.
I can’t wait! Of course I’ll have a little upload for you with some announcements before the season starts on the channel.
Brilliant! Thanks for all your work Marieke!
Thanks for all you do Marieke! We wouldn’t be able to enjoy this fantastic TV show without the great work you do and (spoilers!) podcast about it too this year.
Thank you Marieke love the mole and wouldn’t be able to enjoy/watch without you doing the subs for us so again thank you for everything you do