Sybrand Niessen

On February 29 – Leap Day – we celebrate Sonja Barend's birthday. She turns eighty then. She made countless programs, and when you watch them back, you can sense the spirit of the times. Sonja was the Netherlands' first true talk show host. She dared to ask anything, was critical, broke taboos, and had an opinion. In the night of Saturday, February 29 to March 1, we pay tribute to her. Dutch presenters will talk for an hour about what Sonja meant to them and to the Dutch television landscape.