Longtime animators | A flame to keep alive

After 10 years, 15 years, 20 years at the helm of a show, what is the secret to staying lit? The Press discussed it with longtime animators.

Marc-Andre Lemieux
The Press

Gino Chouinard has been setting his alarm clock at 3 a.m. for twenty years. He always likes Hi hello. As much as the team around him. But after a while, “the mere fact of occupying a position is no longer enough”, explains the headliner of TVA. “We have to add new challenges, new elements that come to look for something in us that we don’t use. »

This is why this fall, the winner of 14 Artis prizes wanted in particular to renew the group of collaborators of the show, so that it includes personalities like Michel Barrette and Boucar Diouf, with whom he could exploit other facets.

Gino Chouinard is not the only animator in this situation. This is what we found by surveying some big names on the small screen.

Bringing changes, pushing back the limits of the possible, satisfying a parallel passion by playing a musical instrument… To keep the flame going, the animators adopt different strategies.

“In our profession, we value people who often change roles, types of programs… With good reason. But we could also value longevity, ”believes Gino Chouinard.

Routine is also the enemy of Julie Bélanger, who presents Ends the week well in tandem since 2013. “When the energy to enhance and improve [l’émission]you still have it, it’s a sign that you’re still in the right place, ”she says in an interview.

To surprise yourself

Gino Chouinard’s speech resonates with France Beaudoin. AlthoughLive from the universe has nothing left to prove after 14 seasons on ICI Télé, as evidenced by her loyal and numerous audience (more than 1,100,000 viewers, according to Numéris), the host is constantly looking for challenges to take up. A program dedicated to Michel Louvain to salute the memory of the singer with a few days notice? Why not ? A special Mother’s Day show in the midst of a pandemic? Let’s go!

In a context of labor shortage, cultivating this alert spirit is of particular importance, believes the host and producer.

“People are solicited from all sides,” she explains. There is a lack of trades everywhere. If your world is not stimulated, if it does not have a reason to come back, a feeling of belonging, a renewed pleasure… Good luck! You risk losing people. And it’s normal that they go elsewhere. That’s why I try to keep my people interested, that they always have the impression that we can do something new, that we can move forward, even in situations that don’t make no sense! I am convinced that we would have lost some players otherwise. »

Variable efforts

Some facilitators need to work less hard to maintain momentum. In command of beautiful and bum for 20 years at Télé-Québec, Normand Brathwaite has kept himself on by “getting involved musically”, that is to say by playing various instruments (harmonica, guitar, cowbell, etc.) when the artists deliver their benefits.

The team behind beautiful and bum also helps with exercise. Each week, she tries to find an artist who will surprise her host, as well as another who will move her. “We’ve gotten to 400-something shows, and it’s never happened to me to come out of a recording saying, ‘It was boring.’ There is always something. I still have a lot of fun,” says Normand Brathwaite.

The efforts are also minimal for Guy A. Lepage and Jean-René Dufort, since they can count on the news, a bottomless pit, to create sparks. ” Whether [Tout le monde en parle] was a TV series, it would have been a long time since we became flat, illustrious Guy A. Lepage, who has just started his 19^e season at the helm of talk show Radio-Canada Sunday. Our advantage is that each week the plots create themselves. »

“I am the first surprised thatInfoman is still on the air after 23 years, adds Jean-René Dufort. I am also the first surprised to still be passionate. But the news is the best show in the city. Every week, I think there will be no more nonsense of candidates and there will be no more incredible things, but like magic, the boiler always fills up. »

The after, not immediately

After so many seasons at the wheel of the same show, it sometimes happens that Gino Chouinard, Julie Bélanger, France Beaudoin, Guy A. Lepage, Jean-René Dufort and Normand Brathwaite think of “the after”. But none seem to want to turn the page soon.

” With Everybody talks about it, I still have everything to learn,” explains Guy A. Lepage. I still have the kick. I read a lot of books that I would never have read [autrement]. I’ve met a lot of great people — and a few assholes too — who have changed me as a human being. For me, it’s a school. It’s like going to college every year. »

“Do I want to continue for a long time? My reflection has not yet begun, maintains Gino Chouinard. But I feel like I need some form of transformation. I am getting older. Professionally, I have less ahead than behind. There may be areas I would like to explore. »