Social networks, which Stéphan Bureau does not frequent, were bubbling and sizzling on Friday evening during the controversial interview with comedian Julien Lacroix at the Upside-down world of VAT.
Basically, viewers blamed the interviewer for his inquisitive approach, moralizing tone and numerous speaking interruptions, which they said oozed arrogance.
Stéphan Bureau read several of these acid comments, which severely shredded his work performed live from the studios of TVA. And Sunday noon, 36 hours after the broadcast of his show, the host did what few crowned heads of showbiz do: he offered a heartfelt apology, even before the newspaper commentators fell on him.
As Stéphan Bureau does not appear on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, he published his mea culpa on LinkedIn, a social network used mainly by business people. Nobody forced him to undress like that, they tell me. No pressure from his bosses at TVA, no encouragement from his team at Upside-down world, he dived without testing the water temperature.
“Impossible to deny what is now obvious to me, I did not give the best of myself during this interview”, wrote Stéphan Bureau on LinkedIn, adding that he was not is not liked watching the interview again.
The captain of Upside-down world notes that he “probably looked like a prosecutor, this is a posture that I denounce among my colleagues and which has disturbed my sleep since”. He continues: “I do not aspire to be a director of conscience, mine not being immaculate either. »
This gesture of introspection, extremely rare in the media, honors Stéphan Bureau, I think. Have you ever seen a famous personality insert himself into the twister, without popular discontent or scandal to curb? Not me. As a general rule, a star apologizes when she no longer has a choice, when her reputation sinks or when her sponsors drive her to the wall after several days of violent storm. A star never voluntarily throws herself into web trolls.
Recognizing one’s clumsiness or revealing certain weaknesses is already difficult in the private sphere, imagine in public. This is a commendable exercise on the part of a leader who is not immediately associated, rightly or wrongly, with the word “humility”.
Reached on Monday, Stéphan Bureau seemed serene and sincere to me after this stormy weekend. “I don’t regret doing the interview at all. Could it have been calibrated differently? Certainly yes. The tone could and should have been different. However, it was out of the question to look complacent, you had to do the hard work before moving on to the feeling”, he explains to me.
With hindsight, Stéphan Bureau conceives that “empathy could have rhymed with rigor” in his interview with Julien Lacroix. And is it new for him to indulge in this form of public self-criticism? Not at all, he decides. “I used to do it every Friday morning on my radio show Of course at Radio-Canada,” he recalls.
Now, was the television encounter between Stéphan Bureau and Julien Lacroix so catastrophic? Yes and no. The first portion was awkward and choppy, it’s true. As he left, Stéphan Bureau seemed haughty, regularly interrupting his guest, reframing his answers and showing him who was the boss on the set (“are you scared?”).
The two men were obviously not dancing to the same rhythm, alternating between the “vous” imposed by the host and the familiarity, more natural in this type of confession segment.
At the same time, Stéphan Bureau had no choice but to subject Julien Lacroix to this “wall of fire”. The reaction would have been a thousand times worse if he had cajoled or presented the 30-year-old comedian as a poor victim. It would have been the apocalypse on Twitter.
The second part was more fluid, with always this palpable tension in the air. Seating Julien Lacroix on the set of a talk show, which all Montreal producers have tried to do, automatically creates a polarizing atmosphere. Julien Lacroix’s detractors are pushing to oust him from the public sphere. His defenders believe that he should not have a trial before the People’s Court. And all these beautiful people spray each other with insults on Facebook.
Too nice, too demanding, not warm enough or not strict enough, Stéphan Bureau would have been peppered and cut to pieces, no matter how he conducted the interview.
According to Numeris, The world upside down was watched by 678,000 curious people on Friday, a tad more than the 665,000 viewers who watched The little tanners at Radio Canada.
Julien Lacroix did not set any conditions before his interview with TVA. He came with his visor up, recalls Stéphan Bureau. “But I could have let him breathe more,” he admits.
Invited after Julien Lacroix, the screenwriter François Avard, who has not consumed since February 1995, skillfully put the lid on this explosive pot by affirming: “We can change, we have the right to a second chance. »
That’s what I think too.