Like many of you, I was not impressed by the work of Radio-Canada television during the opening of the Paris Olympic Games. I found that Martin Labrosse and Céline Galipeau gave the impression of navigating by sight. But the job of a columnist is also to agree to go through the looking glass.
Céline Galipeau, who has returned to Montreal, has learned of the criticism by avoiding those on social media. She agreed to speak to me on Monday and tell me how she experienced this “unique” moment. “I’m definitely disappointed to read these comments,” she said. “I’m sorry that people saw it as an improvisation, as a lack of information.”
First, let’s clarify one thing: many people thought that Céline Galipeau was the main host of this special show. It was Martin Labrosse (who succeeds two pros: Richard Garneau and Marie-Josée Turcotte) who held this role. The Radio-Canada anchor was there to comment on the geopolitical situation of the participating countries.
IMAGE TAKEN FROM THE RADIO-CANADA WEBSITE
Martin Labrosse and Céline Galipeau
I also thought that Radio-Canada had received an avalanche of complaints. “We received a total of 154 comments regarding the broadcast of advertisements during the opening ceremony,” a Radio-Canada spokesperson told me. […] This is a similar proportion to complaints received at previous Games.”
Normally, journalists called to present ceremonies attend a dress rehearsal two days before the event. They know exactly what is going to happen. They have time to prepare. In Paris, the presenters were given a 90-minute briefing last Wednesday.
The director Thomas Jolly wanted to keep the mystery. He told us that we wouldn’t have much time to talk because everything would go very quickly. He warned us: if we talked too much, we would miss things. Maybe we relied too much on that.
Celine Galipeau
The hosts were also given a document containing the ceremony’s proceedings (the names of the 12 tableaux, their meaning, the locations, the creators, etc.). Everything was there, except the details surrounding Lady Gaga and Celine Dion’s numbers, as well as the names of the torchbearers.
In this document, there were even acronyms that indicated “closed microphone” or “open microphone”. “This is what Thomas Jolly wanted”, adds Céline Galipeau.
Did Martin Labrosse and Céline Galipeau listen too much to the director’s recommendations? In any case, other TV crews did not hesitate to loosen their tongues. On France 2, Laurent Delahousse was surrounded by the host and stylist Daphné Bürki and the journalist Alexandre Boyon. “Daphné Bürki worked for two years with Thomas Jolly. She knew all the details,” says Céline Galipeau.
I went to see the comments about this show on social networks. If I summarize roughly, it goes something like this: “Shut up! You talk too much!”
In short, in this kind of event, when do we talk too much, when do we say too little?
“There is an audience that likes to be taken by the hand and another that is annoyed by it,” continues Céline Galipeau. “It was a very difficult ceremony to comment on. To what extent do we let the image, the sound or the atmosphere speak? Thomas Jolly repeated to us that everything would be explained by the magic of the image. There was a balance to be found. If we didn’t find it, I am sincerely sorry.”
The concept was highly innovative. The action took place over six kilometers. No one had an overall view as is the case in stadiums. Céline Galipeau and Martin Labrosse had the same point of view all evening, that of a stand located on Place du Trocadéro.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
The opening ceremony entertainment team, protecting themselves from the rain.
Literally buried under a plastic tarp (torrential rain fell on Paris during the entire ceremony), they followed the scenes on screens for more than four hours. “No one had seen this show in its entirety, not even Thomas Jolly,” explains Céline Galipeau. “I think we should have been more transparent and told people that we were going to discover this show with them.”
Céline Galipeau will not be at the closing ceremony. The sports team will take care of this stage. It was planned like that.
We’ll see if we find the perfect balance.
According to preliminary data from Numéris (2+, French Quebec), an average of 1,024,000 people watched the Paris 2024 opening ceremony live on ICI Télé. In addition, an average of 184,000 people followed the ceremony on RDS. In the evening, 476,000 watched the replay on ICI Télé and 73,000 on RDS.
These advertisements that made so many people angry
Four days after its broadcast, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games continues to fuel a host of topics. Its extreme beauty, Céline’s performance, its “subversive” side, the Olympic flag raised upside down, all of this is being combed over and over again.
But in our house, it’s a completely different subject that still fuels discussions: the presence of intrusive advertising during this very beautiful moment. Many of us have complained about these interminable advertising blocks that have broken the magic of the show several times.
Imagine you’re lying in a hammock with only the sun and the wind as companions. And then a big deer fly comes to bother you every 12 minutes. That’s pretty much what we experienced.
We’ve been told for years that this ceremony would be completely different from all the others. Director Thomas Jolly created an event full of cultural references that wonderfully linked the performing arts to the world of television. He’s a man of his time!
Why didn’t Radio-Canada take advantage of this to imagine a new way of highlighting its advertisers other than through classic blocks which each time gave us the impression of depriving ourselves of something?
When the commercials (all very good, by the way) started, we would use our favorite swear words to greet them. This is not very good for advertisers who want their ads to be received in a positive way.
Many broadcasters have decided not to air any commercials during the opening and closing ceremonies. Radio-Canada should adopt this practice. Why not respect a truce during such moments? It would be such a wonderful gift to give to viewers.
But the public broadcaster is terrified of losing advertising revenue (288.6 million in 2023). About 30% of the state-owned company’s annual budget, which hovers around 1.8 billion, currently comes from private sources (advertising, subscriptions and other sources).
The situation we experienced during the opening ceremony brings us back to the eternal subject of advertising revenues at CBC/Radio-Canada. After radio, television should finally get rid of this ball and chain (because it is one) of advertising. It would give it wings.