Abundance of TV series | The Uniqlo effect on Quebec TV

There is so much laundry in a Uniqlo store, the Japanese equivalent of Gap, that it makes you dizzy with clothing.

Sweaters are stacked to the ceiling, t-shirts come in a million different materials, not to mention loose, tapered, pleated, straight, fitted, relaxed or 7/8 pants. Help.

How do you find the ideal piece that will fit perfectly in this ocean of fabrics?

In my case, I give up in the face of this Herculean task. Sayonara, Uniqlo. Who has the time and patience to try so many things before finding the right one?

Too much choice, it seems like paradise for the consumer, right? Not anymore. Faced with so many options, people become discouraged. They would need a stylist to guide them through the crowded rows of the store.

This is exactly what is happening this fall on Quebec TV: there are too many fiction series to follow. Yes a lot. Viewers shopped at the start of the season, then gave up, putting off watching until later, “when I have more free time”.

We all know that a new television cycle will begin in January, with brand new stories, and that the backlog accumulated since September will never be made up.

Result ? Live ratings are plummeting on all channels. And several excellent Quebec series do not take off and go completely unnoticed.

No one, not even me, has time to put on Alerts, 5^e Rank, Witches, STAT, Indefensible, A criminal case, Fragments, With a beating heart, Mégantic, Plan B, Robotic portrait, Before the crash, After the flood, Discussions with my parents, Raspberry time, One way: survive, Between two sheets, The candidate, Little life 2.0 And The rebels.

In the memory of a columnist, the offer has never been so voluminous. It’s extremely abundant. Borderline scary.

“We shoot too many series in Quebec. We make too many series for the money we have. We should do less, do them better, and favor event series, large-scale series. It’s necessary splash stronger, our series must become essential,” says director and producer Alexis Durand-Brault (Mégantic, Disobey: Chantale Daigle’s choice).

The overabundance of fiction series, and its demoralizing effect on viewers, is causing a lot of talk in the world of Quebec television. This context of overload dilutes the individual impact of a show, which drowns in a sea of ​​similar titles.

Even more daring shows, like After the flood on the airwaves of Noovo, are not a hit. What works is STAT And Indefensiblestill at the top of the listening charts.

And the viewers who follow these two dailies (we watch one live, we record the other) then mortgage their TV evening. These fans do not necessarily have the taste or the time to continue with Before the crash And Alerts. So they postpone it and don’t come back.

But be careful: the current situation of profusion is ending, warn small screen observers. “The post-pandemic period has created a demand for content that is almost impossible to sustain. This is what we are currently seeing on the air. Club illico, Extra d’ICI Tou.tv and Crave empty their reserves. The situation will return to something more normal soon,” notes a seasoned producer, who does not wish to involve her clients and her employer in the debate.

Another factor that risks weighing down this unprecedented offer: the rise in interest rates, yes, yes. Without going into technical details, know that a TV producer only receives its public funding 18 months after the delivery of its episodes. To start filming, these producers borrow from the bank where lines of credit are negotiated, which have cost a small fortune for a year. “Interest rates are rising, but our budgets are not moving,” laments a spy in television production.

Furthermore, broadcasters fear that by shrinking their catalog of fiction series, they will accelerate the exodus of their customers to platforms like Netflix. A legitimate concern.

“No, there aren’t too many TV series. I prefer to see Quebec series that are made here, by local artisans, than to cede this space to American or foreign shows. We make damn good TV here. The problem is its underfunding. For two years, all producers have exceeded their budgets, which no longer reflect what it really costs to produce television,” notes producer Sophie Deschênes, president of Sovimage (Before the crash, A criminal case).

In fashion, you can invest in a few quality pieces, which will last a long time, or buy 43 at a low price, which will self-destruct in two seasons.

In television, the same adequacy is not made as directly. The proof ? STAT And Indefensible, the least costly emissions to manufacture, offer the best quality-price ratio. And they have not yet gone out of fashion in the hearts of viewers.

I levitate

With Anouk Meunier at Masked singers

Of the four investigative judges on the popular TVA show, she is the most insightful, the most mischievous and the most lit. She spots the smallest clue in the capsules, brings them together into a hypothesis and is rarely wrong about the identity of the stars hidden in the mascot costumes. First impression: successful.

I avoid it

Maison Ladore wine ads

There is nothing natural – neither the wine, nor the play of the “actors”, nor their interactions – in these advertisements which appear during the breaks ofDouble occupation. It feels like a Marc Labrèche sketch. The blonde woman in these grocery store wine ads is called Cassandra Lavoine, and let’s just say her very popular recipe books are better digested than what she bottles.