Jay Du Temple wants you to know he’s not quitting Double occupation because of the national psychodrama last October which led to the expulsion of three competitors. “Each season, I sign for only one year, he explains. When I started in 2017, I just thought I was going to get some notoriety, and I got caught up in the game. I didn’t expect to have so much fun and for it to be such a human job. »
But Jay Du Temple knows very well that many of them will conclude that if he evicts himself from the house of love, it is in order to never again be splashed by another controversy of the genre. Truth: Jay Du Temple announced his decision to producer Julie Snyder last August. Reasons for leaving? The comedian wanted to bow out before he no longer liked it, but, above all, in order to devote himself to the running-in of his second show entitled End.
“It was a tough season, but I was happy to be there”, he assures about the incredible epic – intimidation in full TV included – which ended on Sunday evening.
The most important thing for me during difficult times was that my colleagues knew that I was there for them, that the candidates knew that if they needed to say something to the production, I could be their representative.
Jay Du Temple
“It was a long weekend of intensity and emotions during which I focused on what I could control, so more on the human than on the show TV”, he continues about the events that led to the ousting of Isaac, Philippe and Félix.
But by knowingly exacerbating the enmities between its competitors, in the name of this dramatic tension which inflates the ratings, the production ofDouble occupation Didn’t she herself create a deleterious climate conducive to such excesses?
Long silence. “I imagine so…” Jay finally replies, who suddenly becomes very serious, measuring his every word. “I’m still figuring it out. I don’t know if I have to be the judge of all this. I trust that the people in place have learned from that. What is certain is that all of this has fueled my thinking for the future: is it okay for me to just host a show, to be part of something that is being criticized, when it is not not me who makes the decisions? »
be multiple
In 2017, several big names had declined the offer of Productions J to take the reins of the new version of OD, including Stéphane Rousseau and Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge. Jay Du Temple almost added his to the list of those who replied to Julie Snyder: Thank you, but no thank you. “My humor stuff, on a very relative scale, was starting to go well,” he recalls. I had said that I preferred to do shows. »
The demoness, who had seen others, will go to Chez Maurice, in Saint-Lazare, where the one she wanted to convince was hosting a comic evening.
I still remember Richard, the owner, walking into the dressing room yelling, “Hey Jay, Julie Snyder is looking for you!” It was completely absurd. We chatted a little during the intermission and Julie said to me: “If you want to do some shows in life, you have to sell tickets and I am offering you the opportunity to host a show which will allow you to sell a lot of them.”
Jay Du Temple
Jay Du Temple’s biggest fear at this time? Having to narrate in the emphatic tone of a war correspondent intrigues that are altogether benign, the attitude hitherto advocated by his predecessors in turquoise shirts. That was good: the OD team intended to breathe a minimum of the second degree into reality TV.
“I was afraid of what people were going to think, he confides, but I ended up realizing that if those who came to see me at comedy evenings no longer liked me because that I animate OD, they were the problem. We have the right to be multiple in life. »
Julie Snyder had not told him canards: while some theaters refused until then to host his first show, entirely self-produced, we now systematically answered calls from his sister and manager. Without OD, Jay Du Temple would most likely not have set foot on the Bell Center stage in January 2020.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jay Du Temple during the break-in of his show last July
The values that represent Double occupation — a certain heteronormative straitjacket where benevolence dissolves in the glasses of Bulles de Nuit — have however sometimes seemed at odds with those of a Jay Du Temple who, at the microphone of his podcast, made a point of to talk about feminism, consent or body diversity.
“It’s a thought that has never ceased to live in me, but over time I’ve come to terms with the fact that I only animate this showthere, I am not the producer or the broadcaster, he says. I had to accept that I didn’t have full control. My way of being honest was to express my discomforts when there were any. I was never asked to do anything that made me feel uncomfortable. »
Who will succeed him?
At the heart of a television universe that disdains to put on screen faces other than those who have already shone there, entrusting the helm ofDouble occupation to an up-and-coming comedian was exceptional. Jay Du Temple had, after all, only hosted the magazine UrbArt at MAtv — he was also, ironically, featured in the unforgettable “I Choose Jonathan” skit by like me.
Julie saw something in me that even I couldn’t see. It frightens some decision-makers to give someone a big mandate at the start of their career, but the advantage it has is that this person cannot be unmotivated.
Jay Du Temple
Does he have any idea who could succeed him? “What I hope is that this person needs it, as I needed it. I hope that person will see their life change as happily as mine. »