Ève-Marie Lortie, who Hi hello tattooed on the heart, will succeed host Gino Chouinard in September 2024, ensuring the faithful of the TVA morning show a change in continuity.
For the experienced journalist and presenter, who is in the family of Hi hello for 20 years already, this appointment has come at the right time. She sees this new challenge as the culmination of all her efforts over the past 30 years to embody a credible, authentic and sympathetic figure on the small screen.
“It’s a career dream. I hoped for the nomination, I worked hard to get there and I am very proud of what I accomplished. I am aware that this is quite a mandate. Hi hello is an important show,” said Ève-Marie Lortie in an interview with the QMI Agency, on the sidelines of the official announcement of her appointment, Tuesday, on the set of the show.
Gino Chouinard offered flowers “that smell like summer” to Ève-Marie Lortie on Tuesday on the set of “Salut Bonjour”. She will succeed him from September 2024 at the helm of the TVA morning show.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/AGENCE QMI
The whole team gave him a more than warm welcome. Even his mentor, Guy Mongrain, who drove for a long time Hi hellosent her a text message to congratulate her.
Ève-Marie Lortie found out last Thursday that she had the job. She expressed her interest in writing at the end of last January, a few weeks after Gino Chouinard announced his departure, still planned for June 2024.
“I want and I’m able to go a little faster, that’s why I wanted to host during the week,” said the host, who will be 50 next July, just before to take the torch of Hi hello Monday to Friday, a first for a woman in 35 seasons.
“I started in the business when people still said that it was over for women on TV at 50. Now it’s completely different. I was chosen for my skills.”
MARIO BEAUREGARD/AGENCE QMI
No problem getting up at dawn
We often talk about the crazy schedules of people who work early in the morning on TV, but Ève-Marie Lortie has no problem getting up at dawn. After 12 years of a “light schedule” at the animation of Hello Hello weekendher batteries are full, she says, and every time the show’s theme music is heard, the same passion drives her for her job.
“I have a lot of energy, renewed energy, and I have the personality to liven up Hi hello. I am both a woman of information and a woman who loves to cook, who loves to discover things. I’m interested in all the interviews and I’m going to see shows. When we host this show, it takes openness to everything, curiosity. I often say as a joke: ‘you have to be able to make tacos and fajitas, then the next block, you might have an interview with the Prime Minister’.”
“Another marker in time” for Gino Chouinard
For Gino Chouinard, it is “another marker in time” which is added before his announced departure.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/AGENCE QMI
“The hourglass continues to tick until the day I leave and I notice that there are fewer and fewer weeks left. I still have to decide on my departure date, which will be in June. The children would like to take turns coming onto the set. What is special is that the appointment of Ève-Marie comes a year after the announcement of my departure, an announcement that I made on November 29, 2022. Since that time, people have been asking me in the street which will succeed me. Even last week, on vacation in Cancun, I was asked about it. But I didn’t know that!”
Gino believes Ève-Marie is “the best choice for the team” because she has been “dedicated for a long time” to Hi hello. For his part, he continues to think about his next professional chapters, after his 18 seasons at the helm of Hi hello.
A pied-à-terre in Montreal
Ève-Marie Lortie, who has worked within the TVA Group for 27 years, will soon be looking for a pied-à-terre in Montreal, because she plans to keep her home in Quebec.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/AGENCE QMI
“I want to experience Montreal! When I come in the summer to replace Gino, I rent a friend’s condo in Old Montreal and all my girl friends are here.”
Who will replace Ève-Marie Lortie in Quebec?
We do not yet know who will replace Ève-Marie Lortie at the helm. Hello Hello weekend. The process has not yet started, we told the QMI Agency on Tuesday.
Hi hello has been on the air since September 1988. Claude Saucier and Guy Mongrain also hosted it.