Schalkse Ruiters
Schalkse Ruiters, translated as "Roguish Horsemen", was a Flemish humoristic TV talk and game show, broadcast on the TV channel Eén between late 1996 and early 1998. The program was a cross between a comedy show, a talk show, a game show and a mockumentary. Hosted by Bart De Pauw and Tom Lenaerts viewers were shown three video reports about three different topics. The people in the studio and viewers at home had to vote whether they believed each individual video to be real or staged. In between these reports hidden camera segments and comedy sketches were shown. At the time Schalkse Ruiters was notorious for their sensational reports, unpredictable atmosphere and enjoyable comedy. The final episode of the first season, when managing director of the Vlaamse Radio-en Televisieomroep (Flemish Public Radio and Television) Bert De Graeve was their guest, was watched by 2.166 million people. A ratings record that stood for decades, until it was surpassed by De Slimste Mens ter Wereld in 2012. The second season continued the high ratings. Schalkse Ruiters made Bart De Pauw, Tom Lenaerts, Michiel Devlieger, and the comedy character de Man van Melle (The Man from Melle) famous to a huge audience. Concept The show also started with images of De Pauw and Lenaerts riding horses through a green field while soundtrack music from the film Flight of the Intruder by Basil Poledouris was playing. As they enter a peasant's village they are cheered as heroes. In the second season a similar intro was used, but set at the beach. Schalkse Ruiters worked from the principle that viewers shouldn't always believe everything they see on television to be real. That's why each episode showed three reports about which their special guest, the studio audience and the viewers at home had to guess whether they were real or fake. The studio audience (named Klein Vlaanderen (Small Flanders) by them always received a few seconds time to vote. When the time was up the hosts instantly checked how many of them had voted "true" or "not true". The show was broadcast every Sunday evening and had a different special guest each episode. His or her identity was kept a secret until the broadcast itself. In between the reports De Pauw and Lenaerts made jokes and showed sketch movies starring themselves. They often poked fun at the central host by showing archiving footage or hidden camera footage. Once again real footage was mixed in with staged footage. Whether the reports were real or not was only announced in the second part of the show. The first part was broadcast between 20.30 h and 21.30 h. Afterwards an episode of the police TV series Heterdaad was broadcast. When this was over, usually around 22.30h, the second part followed in which the correct answers were announced and which viewer at home won the full-screen television set that episode. Sometimes viewers at home where asked to contribute something for the next episode. Usually these actions were part of a