De Luizenmoeder was a Dutch comedy series broadcast by AVROTROS on NPO 3. The series is about an elementary school, called "De Klimop", its teachers, its principal, and the parents of its first grade students. The first season, which consisted of nine episodes, aired weekly on Sundays between January 14 and March 11, 2018. The season was followed by a special, that included bloopers and deleted scenes. The series became an unexpected success, reaching record-breaking ratings and receiving awards. A second season began on February 10, 2019. Belgian production company Lecter Media bought the rights to make a Belgian version directed by Maarten Moerkerke, which was broadcast on VTM starting in January 2019. The series was created by Jan Albert de Weerd and Ilse Warringa, who also is one of the actors. Filming began on October 5, 2017 at a former elementary school in Mijdrecht, called "Twistvliedschool". It was produced by Ingmar Menning and De Weerd of the production company Bing Film & TV. De Weerd also directed the first season of De Luizenmoeder. Season two was directed by Diederik Ebbinge and Jelle de Jonge.
De Luizenmoeder became a success unexpectedly. It was hailed for its recognizability and its politically incorrect jokes about, for example, Zwarte Piet and gay parents. The first episode was seen live by about 750,000 people, but another 850,000 people watched the episode online in the following six days. Its ratings quickly rose and peaked at episode 4, "Laat ze maar glanzen", which had almost 3.5 million live views and almost 4.75 million including online watching. Six out of the nine first season episodes were the best watched television programs on Dutch television of the week. De Luizenmoeder broke several records: never before was a television show watched online so many times in the Netherlands, and it was the program with the highest ratings on NPO 3 since a new measurement method was introduced in 2008. Several parodies of the song "Hallo allemaal", which is repeatedly sung by teacher Ank, were created. One version was sung by comedian André van Duin, and multiple versions were created for the festival Carnival. De Luizenmoeder received the Zilveren Nipkowschijf, a Dutch television award, in June 2018. Besides, actress Ilse Warringa was awarded the Golden Calf for Best Actress in a Television Drama in October 2018 for her role in the series as Ank. That same month, Warringa won the Silver Television Star during the Golden Televizier-Ring Gala for her role in the series. De Luizenmoeder was also nominated for the Golden Televizier Ring, but it did not win the award.
