In 2002, plans to turn NOVA into a talk show, in a similar vein to the successful Barend & Van Dorp on RTL 4, leaked to Dutch media.

The single-presenter setup was to be changed to two presenters, with a studio audience: one of the planned pairings was to be Felix Rottenberg and Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, who had fronted a successful series in the run-up to the 2003 elections.

The three presenters of NOVA at that time, Rob Trip, Kees Driehuis and Margriet Vroomans, were unaware of these plans until they were leaked to the media, and resigned as a result.

Rottenberg and van Nieuwkerk resigned in February 2003; the editor-in-chief of NOVA, Rik Rensen, followed suit in April 2003.

This section mainly contained parliamentary reports and was presented from The Hague by Pim van Galen, Joost Karhof or Ferry Mingelen; the latter was also a co-presenter of NOVA Politics on Friday.