Dag Erik Pedersen ends in “The Master of Masters” – VG

Dag Erik Pedersen has run the popular NRK show since its inception in 2009. The format is originally Belgian.

– It was 12 seasons – from when I was 48 years old until now I am over 60 years old. They have been good years, but also some hard ceilings in privacy. So it’s been good for me to have “Master of the Masters” to hold on and wait, says Pedersen.

The 61-year-old is sitting at home in the kitchen of Helgeroa’s house, a 20-minute drive from Larvik. From the large terrace you have views of the sea and even Gaustatoppen on a clear day.

– It’s like being in a cabin. Now I’m really looking forward to a summer where I can just relax and enjoy life in a completely different way than many years, says Pedersen.

The final of “Champions of the Masters” last Friday was seen by a total of 1,466,000 during the same weekend; of them, 1,225,000 watched the final linearly on NRK1, 257,000 more viewers than in 2020. A record number has seen this season, which for the first time in history has been recorded in Norway. The average of all episodes in total has exceeded 1.5 million.

– It was only at Christmas that I really started thinking about giving myself. This has been a television adventure. The ratings this season have been fantastic. I can’t imagine we will ever exceed those viewership ratings. After returning home to Norway and filming in Arendal, in many ways the ring was over for me. I wanted to deliver myself to the top.

But the former pro cyclist has no plans to disappear from the TV screen yet. Without him having anything very specific.

– I like to tell stories on television and I have enjoyed taking the portraits of the participants in “The Master of the Masters” that have been broadcast on television and in a one-hour radio program in recent years. That kind of storytelling that I want to continue with. I also want to write a book on “The Teacher of Teachers.” So I’m not exactly running out of work.

He’s always worried that he won’t be the lead role in “The Master of the Masters,” but says he sees himself more as a coach and a motivator.

– I must admit that the one who impressed me the most among the participants is Thor Hushovd. Maybe because he is a cyclist. We who are cyclists as cyclists. But I have never favored anyone. I’ve never been “friends” with anyone. It has been important for me to have distance with the participants. I was never home during filming, I never had a glass of wine with any of them.

TV manager Arne Helsingen at NRK tells VG that Dag Erik Pedersen has contributed a lot to making the “Master of Masters” entertaining and serious at the same time.

– It takes much of the credit that this show has become a tradition and a show that people look forward to, says Helsingen.

According to NRK, who will take over as the show’s director after Pedersen is announced at a later date.

For Dag Erik Pedersen personally, it is especially the recording of three seasons that he remembers particularly well.

The recording of the first season in 2008 that aired in the new year 2009. Just a few months before the recording, he had a heart attack and survived by the slimmest of margins.

– That time I learned that there is a beginning and an end in this life. I remember thinking that what is happening now is happening, he says.

But Pedersen also does not forget the real recording in Spain in the autumn of 2008. Not only because it was the recording of the first “Master of the Masters”, and the beginning of a television adventure, where the audience has been around a million. From the first moment.

– While we were there, Ole Klemetsen’s father died. It is perhaps one of the strongest memories I have of “The Master of Teachers”. I remember well that I interviewed him at one thirty at night about his father. I felt like I almost became a mourner for him and he thanked me several times afterwards.

But for Dag Erik Pedersen personally, the recordings of the Champions of the Champions in 2018, and in 2019, even more difficult. In 2018, he and his partner spent 28 years apart.

– It was hard for both me and my daughters who also had to work with me during the recording. But if 2018 was a bad year, 2019 was even worse.

Around June / July of that year, their only son, Simen, took his own life. In September, he, his daughters and grandchildren traveled to Croatia to record the eleventh season of “Master of the Masters”, which was won by Eirik Verås Larsen.

– To this day, I do not understand how I managed to pass the days, how I managed to do my job, he said in a VG interview before this year’s “Masters of the Masters” season.

The grief over the loss of Simen has been great for Dag Erik Pedersen, but he says that along with three daughters Andrea, (35), Sunniva (26) and Selma (21) they have worked their way out of the pain and grief. worst pain.

– Even if the longing will always be there, says Pedersen.

This winter, she recounted how she experienced the loss of her son on the “Chapter of Sorrow” podcast with Karen Marie Berg.

– I was very scared after agreeing to participate in that podcast. But I have received many nice comments, hundreds of emails from other people who have experienced the same thing as me. Think that what I have experienced may be useful to others. In the midst of it all, it’s good to think about it.

It’s good to think of Dag Erik Pedersen also in the recording of this year’s season in Arendal last fall.

– I almost think these are the happiest days of recording my “Master of the Masters”. There was nothing to press, don’t worry. I’m fine, it’s been a long time since I’ve been as good as I am now. It was good to come home. It’s a good way to end my time on “Master of the Masters”.