7.John de Mol – $2.2 billion
Remember Joop van den Ende, the co-founder of the television production company, Endemol? Now it’s time to meet the founder!
Before getting together with van den Ende, John de Mol already had his own production company, John de Mol Produkties, that continued to function individually even after the merging with van den Ende.
John produced some of the most memorable series such as: Big Brother, Fear Factor, Deal or no Deal, 1 vs. 100 and so on. He is a very well known personality in the Netherlands.
After Endemol was sold, John created his own television station first known as Tien, but after a dispute with SBS Broadcasting the name was changed into Talpa. But then again they managed to solve their problems and the name Tien was taken again in 2006.
Unfortunately, the television channel Tien/Talpa only lasted for two years, from 2005 to 2007, until its assets were sold to RTL Nederland, fact that made possible the creation of RTL 8.
