‘Mister Spoorloos’ does not want to disappear from television at all

HHe had firearms pointed at his head. Was kidnapped. Robbed. Walked with his tall Dutch body through the grimmest slums in South America, often under a scorching hot sun. Nothing seemed to stop TV presenter Derk Bolt from completing the assignment for which he was sent: tracking down the biological parent(s) of Dutch adopted children who wanted to know why they had ever been given up.

Bolt is also called ‘Mister Spoorloos’, after the KRO-NCRV program of the same name Without a trace, which revolves around the reunion of family members who have lost sight of each other. He traveled the world for the TV program for more than thirty years. Bolt would have liked to include a series of trips, but after Wednesday, May 1, he will have to make way for a replacement – much against his will. The program needs to be updated and, according to the broadcaster, that also includes a new face.

Bolt, now 68 years old, loses an important anchor in his life. The Renkumer native has always called the TV program ‘addictive’ and ‘very decisive’ for his existence. Without a trace was always number one, even above a steady relationship – Bolt is divorced and has two children – and a large circle of friends. He was always traveling, together with his regular cameraman and rare friend Eugenio Follender. Of this duo, Bolt was the tenacious detective and Follender was the one who captured the tearful reunion between family members.

Wrong family

According to KRO-NCRV, in the future the emphasis will be less on adoption stories and on Bolt’s trademark, long trips abroad. The broadcaster denies that the change of course has anything to do with the painful revelation in 2022 that Without a trace – after the intervention of an apparently rogue intermediary – had linked several adopted children to the wrong biological family.

Although Bolt did not play a major role in these stories, the issue has stuck with him. Bolt made it there https://twitter.com/khalidensophie_/status/1580247878294962191 on to the talk show Khalid & Sophie dismissing these blunders as an unavoidable ‘margin of error’.

Bolt is annoyed that he will be finished with ‘Mister Spoorloos’ after Wednesday. In daily newspaper A.D he announced that he is far from ready for retirement, nor ‘sick, weak, dead or nauseous’. ‘I like to do crossword puzzles where other people do them Without a trace.’ It is unclear what Bolt will do next. According to a KRO-NCRV spokesperson, Bolt saves ‘his story’ for another medium.

‘Emo TV’

Bolt, a dropped-out journalism student, has built an impressive career. After a premature termination of training in Utrecht and editorial jobs at, among others With an eye to tomorrow and Focal pointBolt started working at Without a trace, initially behind the scenes. In the early years it was Without a trace another studio program with an audience. The presentation was in the hands of Han van der Meer, who mainly focused on ‘people and things’ that ‘have been lost over the years’.

The studio was left in the mid-nineties and they began traveling around the world, with Bolt as a permanent face. The first trip took him to the Korean island of Jeju-do, where people did not even understand a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But Bolt covered the most kilometers in Colombia, the country where, according to the presenter, ‘the nicest people in the world’ live.

The program managed to attract an audience of millions, including initial critics of ’emo TV’. The power of Without a trace is the ‘cathartic effect’ it has for viewers, media psychologist Jaap van Ginneken analyzed in the daily newspaper in 2009 Fidelity. Ginneken, who previously said he ‘hates’ such television, appreciated the program because it offers comfort to anyone struggling with a difficult family situation. ‘You’re not the only one. You recognize something in the story, but it stays on TV.’ In 2001 Without a trace awarded the Televizier-Ring for proven merit.

Rise of social media

It was a long time Without a trace one of the few ways to track down long-lost relatives. There was great annoyance about this among some adopted children, who did not want their story to be shown on TV. The Internet brought an important change in this. Thanks to social media such as Facebook, it became easier for adopted children to search for their biological family themselves. Registrations for Without a trace declined over the years. This left the more complicated stories, which often take place in difficult terrain.

One of those trips led Bolt to his beloved Colombia in 2017, to the dangerous border region with Venezuela. There he and his cameraman Follender were kidnapped by the ELN, a Marxist guerrilla movement. The terrified duo were chased through the jungle for days. Ultimately, they were released after great international pressure.

Looking for kidnappers

Bolt, with characteristic sunny disposition, spoke to a Colombian news site shortly after his release about an “unforgettable experience” and “unexpected camaraderie” with his captors. In an extra Without a tracebroadcast in June, Bolt will return to Colombia and try to speak to his captors at the time.

But first, Bolt will visit Brazil on Wednesday, in his last regular broadcast. There he looks for the biological mother of Rafael, Gioya and Bo, three Brazilian adopted children.