It’s a popular style of television connected to the public which is extinguished, in the blink of an eye, with the disconnection of Denis Lévesque’s daily show on LCN and TVA.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
This eclectic set, which welcomed as many stars, hyper colorful characters as Mr. and Mrs. Everyone, will leave the airwaves on Thursday, May 19 at 8 p.m. after 16 years on the air and more than 3,000 episodes on the clock.
And that’s a shame. Few hosts on traditional channels invite so-called ordinary people to their set. We prefer analysts, ex-politicians or licensed experts to the detriment of “ordinary citizens who experience real problems and who live with the consequences of these problems”, notes Denis Lévesque.
Trained in AM radio in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Denis Lévesque has always opened his studio to those who were shunned by traditional media. He could talk about the Maltese Baby being raped by a neighbor, a lady from Roxton-Pond who died in the game of knife throwing or a 27-year-old young woman from Quebec who received a mechanical heart because she drank too much. energy drinks.
At the same time, the versatile Denis Lévesque followed the trial of Guy Turcotte, delved into the Cédrika Provencher affair and interviewed Larry King or Charles Aznavour. All with his frank, direct and devoid of irony style, which has made his trademark.
PHOTO FROM DENIS LÉVESQUE’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Denis Lévesque with Tristan Laflamme-Millette, invited to talk about the “shaved heads” challenge in 2012.
Yes, the comedians had a good laugh at the crazy guests who confessed absurd things in front of Denis Lévesque. The gags about him do not offend him and he still laughs at the imitation that Marc Labrèche makes of him. “Marc, he made the character evolve. He was not content to say: this evening, I am receiving a Martian, ”notes Denis Lévesque, 63, in a relationship with Pascale Wilhelmy for 13 years.
Denis Lévesque knows the character of Denis Lévesque very well. In May 2016, when he received the speaker Jani Barré, he played the game thoroughly by introducing his guest as “an ex-alcoholic lesbian in a wheelchair, who suffers from a rare disease which has caused 157 fractures since her birth, which led her to a serious depression from which she escaped by becoming a comedian”.
Of course he purposely buttered it so thickly. Better to write the parody yourself, right? “I had fun with it. Herself [Jani Barré] described himself that way in his book,” laughs Denis Lévesque.
If Denis Lévesque pulls the plogue, it is because of the pandemic, which has worn him down. The interviews in Zoom without human contact, the many technical bugs and COVID-19, which has monopolized the news for the past two years, have dulled the enthusiasm of the journalist born in Roberval.
“We had planned and thought out our program to be the most varied in terms of subjects. But with COVID-19, there was only one subject. »
The first year of the pandemic was painful. The second too. After Christmas, I no longer felt like going back to work. I have friends who have passed away or been ill, it puts things into perspective. I’m no longer in a period of my career where I feel like making myself sweat.
Denis Levesque
It was at TQS that Denis Lévesque became a big star on the small screen. In the early 2000s, he was heating up the 10:30 p.m. debates that followed The Big Newspaper. These highly watched clashes of ideas even beat the talk show Guess who’s coming tonight? by Josélito Michaud on TVA.
TEL-QUEBEC SCREENSHOT
Marc Labrèche in one of his parodies of Denis Lévesque and Pascale Wilhelmy
Then, in the summer of 2005, TQS recruited Isabelle Maréchal to take the reins of Loft Story 2 and copilot The Big Newspaper with Denis Levesque. This mixing of genres irritated Denis Lévesque, who did not want to “read the news with the daughter of loft story “. I mentioned the frustrations of the TQS anchor in this column and his phone immediately rang: it was the vice-president of news at TVA, Serge Fortin, who was rolling out the red carpet for him.
Before slipping into his chair at LCN on April 17, 2006, Denis Lévesque spent a week with CNN bonzes in New York. It was also an American consultant who suggested that he conclude each of his shows with a signature gesture, that of turning off the lights by snapping his fingers.
Today, the networks would no longer broadcast tough confrontations as at the time of the Big Newspaper of TQS, believes Denis Lévesque. “Everyone is afraid of controversy. If you do live debates, it can be extremely confusing. Before, you could drop one and it wasn’t that bad. Today, the person at fault must self-flagellate in the hours that follow, ”he notes.
And receiving people who have no TV experience is even more complex. “In modern TV, everything is formatted, in 4K, with a lot of technical concerns for the image. There are concepts of interviews in Tempo shelters or on a swing. But that’s not an interview. You just have to sit in front of someone and take the time to talk to them, that’s all,” continues Denis Lévesque, who still works without a teleprompter.
When he arrived at LCN, Denis Lévesque was producing 225 one-hour shows a year. It has reduced its annual cadence to around 150.
For 16 years, we were a talk show without an orchestra, without an audience and even without a cameraman. All cameras were operated by robots. In short, it was a beautiful, good and cheap talk show for the company.
Denis Levesque
Denis Lévesque does not leave LCN in bitterness, on the contrary. His bosses understood his decision to slow down and offered him to host 25 major interviews to celebrate LCN’s 25th anniversary in September.
Even before social networks existed, Denis Lévesque and his team understood the concepts of virality and hooks. “After the break, I receive the one you knew as the lesbian in a wheelchair, an ex-alcoholic suffering from a rare disease that caused 157 fractures, an ex-depressive and comedian, now she has become a boxer and marathon runner”!
Honestly, who doesn’t want to watch this segment?