In fifteen years, the channel’s star host, widely implicated in a Mediapart investigation, has multiplied programs on the theme of real estate and developed a network of agencies owned by the M6 group.
“Between men and women, it’s always a little complicated,” Stéphane Plaza confided to franceinfo in 2014. Nearly ten years later, the M6 host is accused of violence by three former partners in an investigation published by Mediapart, Thursday September 21. The host is accused, among other things, of having exercised “manipulation, pressure and mistreatment” on one of them and having broken several of her fingers. Accusations refuted by the host.
Another ex-partner, single mother and former participant in one of his shows, declares having filed a handrail in September 2022 after suffering violence and death threats. The third woman cited by Mediapart explains that she ended their relationship after being threatened by the alcoholic host during a weekend in Vienna (Austria), when she had just discovered that he was cheating on her. .
The M6 group reacted Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) by declaring that it had taken “act of Stéphane Plaza’s formal contestation of the facts with which he is accused and of the legal challenges he has initiated”. In fifteen years, the channel’s star host has become a pillar of the private group. He runs no less than five programs there and has developed a network of real estate agencies in his name, of which M6 has control.
“He had a good head”
Stéphane Plaza appeared for the first time on M6 in 2005. At that time, the channel wanted to develop “television guide”which helps the viewer on “concerning topics” like love, with “L’Amour est dans le pré”, producer Pascale Albertini told Release in a portrait dedicated to the host. The theme of real estate is untapped and the producer begins looking for professionals who could help future buyers find the property of their dreams.
“We were looking for experienced agents”continues with the Parisian Pascale Albertini, in 2016. The production goes to a real estate fair where Stéphane Plaza works. “He arrived in a jacket and t-shirt, he had a good face and looked funny. In two scenes, we knew it was him,” she remembers. For his part, the person concerned sees in the casting “a good way to break the cliché of the crook agent who drives a BMW”.
Launched in 2006, “Search apartment or house” recorded an average of 3 million viewers in 2011, a success boosted by the real estate crisis of 2008, specifies Release. Faced with this success, M6 offered Stéphane Plaza the following year to host “Maison à vente”. The facilitator helps individuals sell their house by making it more attractive. In 2016, the programs had 2.7 and 3.1 million viewers, respectively. “A very good audience which has never faltered”, welcomed M6 to the Parisian.
Shows, magazines and theater on M6
In 2015, the group further explored the real estate market by launching “Chasseurs d’appart” in prime time access (between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.), despite tough competition from Cyril Hanouna and “TPMP” on C8. For five days, three real estate agents offer properties for sale to individuals and the agent whose property is chosen wins 1,000 to 3,000 euros. “LThe audiences are there, people want to see it.”ensures M6 at Parisian.
In 2022, Stéphane Plaza is entrusted with the presentation of “Change everything or move”, where families must choose between renovating their house or buying new accommodation. In 2023, he launches “New house for a new life”. According to his own calculations, the real estate agent, omnipresent on the chain, now occupies on average “eighteen hours a week on the air”he slips in 2019 at Parisian.
The host is not limited to the small screen. In 2021, he launched his magazine dedicated to real estate and decoration, welcome home by Stéphane Plazapublished by the magazine publisher Prisma and M6 (but stopped since August 2022). The real estate agent is also a theater actor. On three occasions, M6 broadcasts live the plays in which he plays: To the left when exiting the elevator in 2015 or even A magical couple in 2023.
“The French’s favorite presenter”
Beyond its broadcasts, it is the “Plaza style” which explains its success. He does not hesitate to say what he thinks about the decoration of a home or to reprimand sellers who are too demanding on prices. “People accept everything from him, it’s impressive”emphasizes to the Parisian Karine Le Marchand, her best friend, another star host on M6. “He has this gift with peopleassures producer Pascale Albertini, always with the daily newspaper. Off camera, on shoots that last several days, he sometimes has dinner or a drink with the participants in the show.”
On the sets, Stéphane Plaza is described as a joker and bungler. He disguises himself as a superhero, as Tarzan, as a prima ballerina… “Once, the production wanted me to wear a flight attendant costume, I arrived as an air hostess, does he have fun with the Parisian. In a show about neighborhood conflicts, he asked a somewhat uptight septuagenarian to make love with him on the lawn. remembers Karine Le Marchand to the daily newspaper. This style led to him being recruited by Laurent Ruquier to participate in “Grosses Têtes”, on RTL (M6 group) in 2016.
In 2019, a survey placed Stéphane Plaza as the favorite host of the French. “It’s the greatest gift the public could give me”he reacts. “I’ve always been a hard worker, straight in my boots, I feel validated.” A place that he will continue to occupy in the following years.
A sign that the host counts and that he embodies a certain idea of real estate in France, the pollster Jérôme Fourquet and the journalist Jean-Laurent Cassely use his name in their work France before our eyes (2021), which describes the changes in French society. They define the dream of the pavilion, with its garden, its barbecue, its car, as “the ideal majority Plaza”quoted The world.
A network of real estate agencies in his name
Stéphane Plaza is also a businessman. In 2015, he launched a network of real estate agencies in his name. The project was initiated in 2013, with M6. “I suggested to M6 that they open a network. I knew that the group was diversifying”he tells in 2019 to The Express. The host joined forces with two former managers of the competing network Laforêt and the M6 group allowed the new company to obtain great visibility thanks to advertising.
In 2020, the network had nearly 550 agencies in France and the host aims to have more than 800 by 2025, cites the specialist media The Agency. Today, it has more than 660 and is the fourth network in France in terms of establishment. The company’s turnover has increased eightfold in seven years, recalls The world.
According to figures compiled by BFMTV, Stéphane Plaza Immobilier had a turnover of 16.5 million euros in 2020, with a net profit of almost 6 million euros. Of this amount, Stéphane Plaza, who held 25.5% of the company’s capital, would have received more than 1.5 million euros before taxes and M6, more than 3 million euros. A financial success which convinced the audiovisual group to become a majority shareholder of the company in 2022 (51% of the capital).
But how far will the relationship between the host and M6 go? In 2019, Stéphane Plaza said to himself “partnered with Nicolas de Tavernost”, the boss of the channel. “The day he leaves, I will think”, he assured Parisian. “I have incredible loyalty to this channel, and I won’t go to another one,” did he still rent from Télé-Loisirs. His contract with M6 must end in 2028. “It will be the last”, he anticipated on Franceinfo last May.