More than 16 years after leaving TQS with a bang for LCN, Denis Lévesque will host his last daily show on Thursday. Sixteen years during which the “Larry King of Quebec” fully assumed the role of information show and sensationalism, to the chagrin of the purists of journalism who looked down on him.
Of these criticisms, Denis Lévesque does not care, strong in his longevity and the six Artis trophies awarded to him by the general public. “I remember going to Christiane Charette’s show and, from the first question, she asked me if I was a sensationalist. The answer is yes, I am a sensationalist. I am in the emotion and the feeling, ”he admitted in an interview with the To have to.
At the end of the line, he insisted on vigorously defending his style, which he believes is the most likely to interest a large audience in public affairs. “Me, the best teacher I’ve had in my life was called Noël Lavoie. He gave everything show ! He climbed on the desks to explain the Roman Empire and the legend of Hercules to us. But [finalement], he gave me a taste for history. In the pedagogy, there must be something spectacular, ”says the native host of Roberval, in Lac-Saint-Jean.
However, Denis Lévesque had slammed the door of TQS in the summer of 2005 precisely because he refused show information. The channel had just announced that its new recruit, Isabelle Maréchal, was going to be both the host of the reality show loft story and one of the headliners of its late-night newscasts. A mix of genres that did not please the one who therefore had to co-present the television news with her. “I asked myself if I wanted to be a journalist or a infotainer “, he confided to the To have to in August 2005, when leaving the “black sheep of TV” for the Quebecor empire.
Almost 17 years later, Denis Lévesque brings a few nuances to this milestone in his career. “In the headlines, it came out like I didn’t want to doinfotainment. In reality, it was more of a power struggle between information and programming. The information did not want to be imposed a presenter of the loft by programming”, recounts the man who has often been criticized for having contradicted himself by doing to LCN exactly what he had denounced to TQS.
Not just a freak show
However, he cannot be accused of having been opportunistic.
At the time it joined Quebecor, LCN only collected a measly 2% market share, two or even three times less than in previous years. Management then undertook a major shift inspired by American news channels. This is how the TVA helicopter, telephone talk shows, columnists, but also public affairs programs appear, which are not content to be news bulletins. In April 2006, Denis Lévesque’s new show set the tone with its format modeled on that of Larry King on CNN.
Almost all the big names of the show business Quebecers, but also ordinary people with extraordinary stories: children with cancer, victims of heinous crimes, inspiring people and, of course, a few colorful characters whose passage will give rise to sequences that have become cult.
“We wanted to give the floor to people to whom we don’t normally give more than 15 seconds in a newscast. It is sure that it can give rise to people who are nervous, who make two or three mistakes in French, who lose their temper because their cause is close to their heart. But that was not the purpose of the maneuver. I’ve never done an interview wanting to laugh at someone. Out of 10,000 interviews, there may only be about thirty spectacular ones at the end of the day,” insists Denis Lévesque, who would not like this to be the memory we keep of his talk- show.
The host believes on the contrary to have contributed to changing mentalities, boasting among other things of having been one of the first to invite trans people on the airwaves, in the mid-2000s. At the time, some well-meaning Radio-Canada people were offended by it and accused it of making a “ freak show with these misfits. “Today, they want it in all their soap operas,” retorts Denis Lévesque, mockingly.
The end of an era
At 63, the host is now preparing to slow down. It was on his own that he decided to end his daily show, tired of two years of pandemic which confined him to interviews by videoconference. A torture for those who practice this profession to be in contact with people, precisely.
Starting in the fall, he will host a series of major interviews with 25 key personalities of the past 25 years, still on the airwaves of LCN. On the other hand, retirement should not take long, he adds, noting that the media environment has evolved considerably since its first steps on AM radio in Lac-Saint-Jean, at the turn of the 1980s.
“We live in a schizophrenic society. [D’un côté,] on the Internet, you can increasingly say anything anonymously; I even had to delete my Facebook page because I was getting too many comments that made no sense. And on the other hand, we on the air can say things less and less; there are subjects that have become very complicated to approach, ”laments Denis Lévesque, still animated by the sacred fire, that said.