When it comes to who will host Eurovision 2020, all eyes have been focused on figures from Dutch music and entertainment. But now sports presenter Herman van der Zandt has entered the orbit as rumours churn about who will host of the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen nearly all Dutch stars with presenting experience lining up at NPO to hear whether they might get the chance. From influencer and fashion expert Anna Nooshin to Dutch language singer and Eurovision commentator Jan Smiteveryone wants to present the biggest music competition in the world.

One name that was rarely mentioned was former TV anchor Herman van der Zandt, who hadn’t publicly commented on whether he wanted to host the event, which will be broadcast not only in The Netherlands but across Europe, Australia and the United States (via Netflix).

Herman’s modesty seemed to have paid off. During the summer reports began to emerge that he had been approached by NPO. Recently, a report by De Telegraaf suggested that Herman and his fellow former news presenter Dionne Stax were seen as NPO’s favourites.

The sports presenter has finally revealed — to radio station RadioVeronica — that he and Dionne are indeed in talks with the public broadcaster.

“Yeah, well yeah, I have to think about whether I would like it. [We] are talking about it, but we will all see.”

Who is Herman van der Zandt?

With his modesty and quick wit, Herman van der Zandt is one of the finest faces within the news department of NPO. First known as the anchor of the country’s main current affairs programme, NOS Journaal, Herman now serves as a sports presenter for NOS Studio Sport. Over the past few years, he presented a live talk show from France in lieu of the Tour de France as well as quiz programme Met het mes op tafel. He knows that being a presenter on television is not an easy job: he’s encountered technical errors and even an attempt to hijack his news broadcast. But he typically stayed cool as a cucumber.

While hosting these shows show and presenting the news, he often got the label of being rather serious, which would make him an odd choice for such a lively show as Eurovision. But during one of the opening episodes of Mes het mes op tafel this season, he proved otherwise by rapping “Walk This Way” by Run DMC and Aerosmith. The television segment went viral on Twitter and was quickly dubbed “the best television moment of the year”.

Would you like to see Herman van der Zandt present Eurovision 2020? Let us know in the comments below!

Read all the Netherlands news here

Picture: Hans Vink, Omroep MAX

12 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Matt
Matt
4 years ago

I would love to see Linda de Mol or Marijke Amado!

Matt
Matt
4 years ago

I would love to see Linda de Mol or Marijke Amado! <3

ESCFan2009
ESCFan2009
4 years ago

He looks smart, intelligent and friendly. I am in! 🙂

Sara
Sara
4 years ago

I see people talking about embarrassing jokes, and yes exactly what I was thinking, they just don’t work. I really hope that they will choose good hosts and make Eurovision in my country an unforgettable one!

Vrede
Vrede
4 years ago

Dionne hosted the annual TV awards gala last night and got a lot of bad criticism. I wonder if AVROTROS would reconsider after this little backlash.
Jan Smit is probably out too, his English is deemed not good enough by the NPO.

pepe
pepe
4 years ago
Reply to  Vrede

Please let it be true about Jan Smit not hosting. Do you have a source about Jan Smit’s not good enough English?

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago

yes Herman would be a good choice for our hosts

also please don’t let us choose Arjen Lubach, i don’t like his controversial ”humour”

but wiwibloggs team, cannot wait to see you guys in our country next year for eurovision, gonna be so special for me too, a eurovision in my own country

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

People underrated the sharp but modest hosts. Think 2000 or 1984. Not cringey but not overly serious either. Ireland were sometimes pretty good at it (1988 and 1997 were pretty nice happy-medium kinds of hosts).

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Well, one half of 1997 anyway. I liked how Ireland never even tried to go comedy with their hosts. I don’t know why that’s now deemed a requirement. I guess it’s a different show nowadays, but they could leave the comedy (if required) to somebody other than the host. 1996 gave us possibly my favorite humorous host with Ingvild Bryn, and she’s a serious news anchor.

Roo
Roo
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

She frightened the life out of me.

EuroNerd
EuroNerd
4 years ago

Omg that would be amazing. I always really like his work as a presententer, he’s serious but also really funny

Nata
Nata
4 years ago

Him and Dionne Stax would be wonderful. Serious but cheerful, probably no embarrassing jokes, people who take the contest and foreign culture serious enough not to disgracefully mock it, they would be very good choices. Not someone like Jan Smit, who misinforms the public (one of many examples is him saying in 2016 that Jamala sang in Ukrainian. Come on, a commentator should know it was Crimean Tatar) and speaks trash on anything that isn’t Dutch or a bookie’s favourite.