Sex assault admission won't sideline TV pundit after all

Just over two weeks after quitting from Vandaag Inside amid public outrage over an "anecdote" he told about how he penetrated an unconscious woman with a candle in the 1970s, Johan Derksen will be back on the television show from Monday, he said to AD.

The show will be back on air from Monday with all three hosts - Derksen, Wilfred Genee, and Rene van der Gijp. Derksen did not explain further, saying that Talpa Network, which broadcasts the show, will release a statement later on Wednesday.

Two weeks ago, Derksen caused an uproar by saying that he penetrated a drunk, unconscious woman with a candle in the seventies - to the amusement of his co-hosts. A day later, he went back on the statement and said he placed the candle on a pedestal between her legs. Talpa Network demanded that Derksen apologizes on the Thursday evening broadcast, but instead, he announced that he was quitting the program.

According to NU.nl, it now appears that Derksen did not resign because of the public outcry but because the three of them did not receive support from the Talpa management.

According to AD, the network has been working hard behind the scenes to return the program because it is one of the best scoring programs on SBS6.

Johan Derksen has caused numerous uproars in the Netherlands over the past years, mostly due to racist comments and jokes about LGBTQI+ people. He claimed that he was receiving death threats after he called Turkey a "shit country" and implied that gay men are over exaggerating when they talk about violence against the LGBTQI+ community. Before that, he also said that gay men would find it easier to come out if they had more character. He compared Black politician Sylvana Simmons to a monkey, rapper and activist Akwassi to Zwarte Piet. He said that football clubs "go to shit" if they are located in neighborhoods where many Moroccan families live.