De Bondgenoten wins Gouden Televizier-Ring with 44% of votes as gala draws 1.6 million viewers

The winner

De Bondgenoten, the SBS6 reality show, won the Gouden Televizier-Ring on Thursday evening at the gala in Koninklijk Theater Carré, ahead of the consumer programme Kassa (BNNVARA) and the drama series Woeste Grond (AVROTROS). A spokesperson for Bindinc, the media company behind the award, said on Friday that the programme took 44% of the votes. The vote shares of the other two nominees were not made public. The show has been on television since autumn 2023 and averages 650,000 viewers per evening, according to Telegraaf. Sixteen unknown Dutch participants, split into shifting teams, compete in a warehouse for a chance at 100,000 euros.

Vandaag Inside won last year with a record 74% of the votes, and in the past decade only Oogappels, with 39% in 2023, won with a lower share.

Gala viewing figures

The gala drew nearly 1.6 million viewers on Thursday evening, according to preliminary figures from Nationaal Media Onderzoek (NMO), and was the most-watched programme of the day by a wide margin. The pre-show, a live feed from the red carpet with Britt Dekker and Splinter Chabot, reached 987,000 viewers and ranked behind only the 20:00 NOS Journaal, which drew over 1.3 million. Last year the gala averaged about 2.2 million viewers, making it the 22nd most-watched television broadcast of 2025. Viewing figures for this year's gala are therefore lower than last year's. The figures are described as preliminary.

Presenter and acting prizes

Jan Versteegh won the Televizier-Ring for best presenter earlier in the evening, and Het Parool reports he was visibly emotional when he accepted the main award for De Bondgenoten. He said:

Thank you for taking De Bondgenoten into your hearts, for watching every day and for voting, because without you we would not have had this.

He also thanked John de Mol for his trust at Talpa over the past eight years. Annet Malherbe won the Televizier-Ring Acteur for her role as Emma in Rust & Vreugd (Omroep MAX), beating Hendrik Jan Bökkers, who was nominated for the second year running for playing the farmer Dinant Ottink in Woeste Grond. Bökkers said on the blue carpet:

It is really very special again. I don't know how it happens either.

Lifetime and impact awards

Joop van den Ende received the Gouden Televizier Oeuvre-Ring, presented by Chantal Janzen, and Volkskrant reports it was the first time anyone had won that prize. The 84-year-old media and theatre producer was nominated 26 times for his television productions, according to Het Parool. He said:

Television is the most beautiful profession in the world. Cherish it, I miss it enormously.

Volkskrant reports that he received a standing ovation lasting two minutes. The Televizier-Ring Impact went to Even tot hier (BNNVARA), whose presenters Niels van der Laan and Jeroen Woe collected over 3 million euros for Ukraine together with accordion player Oleg Lysenko. NOS reports that the money was used to buy ambulances and medical equipment.

Kassa and Woeste Grond

Kassa was nominated for the first time, and the consumer programme is set to leave the schedule after this season because of budget cuts at the NPO. BNNVARA announced on Thursday morning that it will continue online in a new form with a smaller budget. Suzanne Kunzeler, content director of BNNVARA, said the nomination had "really set something in motion." Woeste Grond lost for the second year in a row, while its cast watched De Bondgenoten take the prize. The series, filmed in Hoge Hexel and averaging nearly a million viewers per episode, will get a film, Woeste Grond: Een Hete Zomer, which premieres in January.