Zondag met Lubach is a Dutch weekly satirical television programme presented by Arjen Lubach and broadcast on NPO 3. Each week Lubach talks for half an hour about the news of the past week through various fragments from the media infographics and investigative journalism. The show's main scriptwriters are Tex de Wit and Pieter Jouke. The program is recorded in the big room of the Theater Bellevue in Amsterdam.
Arjen Lubach is a strong opponent of the monarchy of the Netherlands. Out of protest against the monarchy, he came up with a citizens initiative, in which he crowned himself "Pharaoh of the Netherlands", which, like 'King' is also a hereditary title. At the time of the airing of the show in which he introduced his initiative, it was 200 years since William I proclaimed himself a King of the Netherlands. For the citizens initiative Lubach needed a minimum of 40.000 endorsements, which he obtained while he was a guest at the Dutch talk show De Wereld Draait Door. With the minimum of 40.000 endorsements, the House of Representatives was obliged to talk about the initiative.
Zondag met Lubach inspired the global video contest Every Second Counts after it broadcast the parody video "The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words" on 22 January 2017. In the video, Donald Trump's speeches and actions –mostly from his election campaign– are imitated and mocked by voice actorGreg Shapiro, who gives a short description of the Netherlands using some self-mockery as well, finishing with the request that the Netherlands may come 'second' if America is to be 'first'. A semi-serious undertone is formed by fears that Trump's announced "America First" policy signifies isolationism, including withdrawing U.S. support for NATO: "If you screw NATO, you're gonna make our problems great again." The video went viral, being discussed by multiple international newsmedia and reaching over 73 million views worldwide by 3 February. On 2 February during Neo Magazin Royale, Jan Böhmermann challenged the Dutch's second place, broadcasting a rival video that claimed 'Germany second' whilst making fun of the Netherlands and Germany itself as well. Then, he encouraged other satirical talkshow producers in all European countries to make similar videos parodying Trump, themselves and challenging the Netherlands' second place behind America. Production teams in at least eleven other countries committed to making their own parody videos, and by 3 February, versions for Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal and Lithuania had been released; these would all be gathered on the website everysecondcounts.eu.
In late August 2017, a YouTube channel named "Westeros The Series" uploaded a "trailer" for Westeros, a new 'television series' that would be set in a modern-day Westeros after the events of Game of Thrones, and would premiere in 2019. After getting attention from media, including The Daily Telegraph and Vice, the channel uploaded another video on YouTube in early September 2017, instead revealing that Zondag met Lubach would return on 10 September 2017. Zondag met Lubachs official YouTube channel also uploaded a combined version of the 'trailer'.
On 10 June 2016 Zondag met Lubach won the Zilveren Nipkowschijf. The winner of the prize is chosen by a jury consisting out of newspapers and magazines television critics. The year before, Zondag met Lubach received an honorable mention by the jury
Gouden Televizier-Ring (2017)
Best Television show
On 11 October 2017 during the Televizier-Ring Gala, Zondag met Lubach was awarded the Gouden Televizier-Ring for "Best television program". Zondag met Lubach got a plurality of the vote with 47%. During the airing of the award-show people could vote on one of the three nominees for "Best television program". The two other nominees for the price were, Beste Zangers and Expeditie Robinson. Arjen Lubach started off his reception speech with saying "Wat ontzettend terecht" meaning "How very much deserved". Furthermore, he praised the rest of his team and expressed their importance. This was the first time that a vpro-program won the prize. To get people to vote on Zml during the award-show, Arjen Lubach had an advert placed on the Ziggo Dome. In this advert the presenter of Beste zangers and presenters of Expeditie Robinson were seen giving the advice to vote on Zondag met Lubach and later thanked by Lubach. This initially angered a few people, because they thought that the advert was paid with tax money. However, Lubach later said that this was not the case, but that he knew a few people who could get this done.
Best actor
To gain the attention of his viewers about the nomination for best actor, Lubach talked about it on his show, however he didn't talk about his own nomination. Instead, he talked about Erik de Vogel, who got nominated in the category for best actor. He requested people to vote for De Vogel, together with a catchphrase "Ludo verdient een kudo" meaning Ludo deserves kudos. De Vogel did however not win the award, as it was given to Jeroen van Koningsbrugge instead.
