Once again this year, no one will try to loosen the hold that Radio-Canada has around December 31. By showing films, the other channels will leave the field open to the public broadcaster throughout the evening. “We don’t want to be David against Goliath”, summarizes the vice-president of content for Télé-Québec, Nadine Dufour.
While ICI Télé will offer its traditional line-up (New Year’s Day Live, See you next year, Infoman and Bye), TVA will offer three films: Green’s Book (6:30 p.m.), Miss Daisy and her driver (9 p.m.) and All Inclusive: Welcome to the club (11:30 p.m.). Noovo will offer Harry Potter (6:30 p.m.) and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (9:30 p.m.), and Télé-Québec will offer Bach and Bootie (6:30 p.m.) and My Fair Lady (8:15 p.m.).
These 100% cinema grids were predictable. Télé-Québec “no longer attacks” December 31 for a good fifteen years, recalls Nadine Dufour in an interview.
During the holiday season, the educational and cultural network prefers to target another Christmas Eve: Christmas. For some seasons, special editions of beautiful and bum and There are people at mass come to improve the grid of December 24. ” It’s a pattern that works well for us and that we have no intention of changing,” says Nadine Dufour.
Radio-Canada’s December 31 programming has really expanded over time. It’s not just the Bye. Today it’s Infoman, Straight from the universe… They sniffed out the potential, and we dug in wisely. We focused on other dates.
Nadine Dufour, vice-president of content at Télé-Québec
The directions of TVA and Noovo declined to comment.
Last attempts
Radio-Canada has been going it alone for a long time on New Year’s Eve. In recent years, TVA has made no great effort to shake its dominance. One of the most recent (and serious) attempts dates back to 2015. The Quebecor channel premiered two show recordings: RBO: The Tounes, which Guy A. Lepage, André Ducharme, Yves P. Pelletier and Bruno Landry had donated to the Videotron Center in Quebec City, and Marie-Mai to the Bell Centre. This programming had attracted a few hundred thousand viewers, according to Numéris.
The previous year, TVA had obtained better results by presenting a special episode of Beautiful discomforts by Martin Matte, entitled The beautiful Christmaseswhich had managed to muster 1,739,000 fans against France Beaudoin.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Martin Matte had good success with the special episode of Beautiful discomforts for Christmas.
Director of the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Pierre Barrette finds it difficult to see how TVA, Noovo or Télé-Québec could concoct a menu that could compete with the “blockbuster” offer of Radio-Canada. “These are big pieces that are expensive to produce. It takes a lot of planning. It requires significant resources, ”he enumerates.
Radio-Canada has found a good strategy by starting its evening earlier, and not at 11 p.m., as has long been the case. They figured out that by doing year-end specials with their flagship shows, they were able to create a train that picks up just about anything it can pick up.
Pierre Barrette, director of the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal
“They created something quite strong and unifying. Naturally, the others settled down, ”he adds.
On the English side
In English Canada, CBC will rock the year with Rick Mercer. Starting at 11 p.m., the comedian will be in charge of a show that will bring together artists from across the country, including Vincent Vallières, the only representative from Quebec.
On the side of the American channels, the music will also be put forward. Starting at 10:30 p.m., NBC will present, live from Miami, Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party 2023a 120-minute special hosted by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton.
PHOTO EDUARDO VERDUGO, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Miley Cyrus will host the Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party 2023.
On CBS and ABC, the celebrations will begin at 8 p.m. For the 18e year, Ryan Seacrest will host the Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve from ABC live from Times Square in New York. CBS will broadcast New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Basha five-hour marathon for country fans, featuring Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Brooks & Dunn, Zac Brown Band, Jimmie Allen and Elle King.
Although they bring together big names, these television meetings usually attract a modest number of Americans. All things considered, their audiences pale in comparison to the astronomical figures obtained by the Bye in Quebec, a rare phenomenon. “I have often looked for comparable examples, but I have never found any,” says Pierre Barrette. We are a rather unique people: we collectively decide to spend our last moments of the year in front of our TV. »