The live finale of What talent!the Quebec adaptation of Got Talentwas weighed down Monday evening by a technical problem. At the time of the vote, the Noovo site experienced failures due to high traffic. The announcement of the winner’s name was postponed until Thursday, which puts the broadcaster on the defensive.
Posted at 5:09 p.m.
Everything was going according to plan until the vote was opened. After the performance of the seven finalists, viewers only had around ten minutes to vote, causing a rush on the Noovo website, which did not hold up. On social media, fans of the show complained about not being able to make their choice due to bugs.
When revealing the winner, at the end of the show, host Marie-Josée Gauvin took everyone by surprise by arriving on stage without an envelope, before announcing that the production was giving the public one more day to vote. On the faces of the competitors, we could see the amazement live. The surprise was also total for the four judges: Rachid Badouri, Serge Denoncourt, Anne Dorval and Marie-Mai.
« Afin de garantir l’équité envers tous les finalistes, la production et la firme Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton [qui supervisait le vote] decided to extend the vote until Tuesday 10 p.m. The results will be announced next Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on Noovo during the daily show,” Bell Media said on Tuesday, which declined our interview request.
Pre-recorded finale
Shows featuring the best moments from the first season of What talent! were already on the schedule all week in the 7:30 p.m. slot. Note that the announcement of the winner, which viewers will be able to see in Thursday’s episode, was pre-recorded.
Following Monday’s hiccup, production had to quickly pull itself together and find a plan B for revealing the result. After the show ended, the audience and contestants were asked to stay at the Monument-National to film seven different versions of the voting results. In turn, the seven finalists had to simulate their reaction in the event of victory, as if they were live. Only the segment with the winner will be broadcast on Thursday. It is therefore in front of his television, in fact, that the winner will learn that he has won the grand prize of $100,000.
This process is often used in American reality TV shows. Keeping all the candidates in Montreal until Thursday to announce the result to them live would have been too expensive for the production team.
Noovo played big
Produced by Sphere Media, What talent! wanted to be the locomotive of Noovo this fall, which even had the idea of deploying this concept, which has been adapted many times all over the world, into a daily format. It was the first time that Bell Media’s young general channel had relied on a major variety show of this magnitude. At this time, it is still unknown whether the Quebec version will be renewed for a second season.
Representatives from Fremantle, the British distribution company that owns the rights to the franchise Got Talentwere on site during the final of What talent! Monday. They must ensure that the original concept is respected. Fremantle did not respond to our questions on Tuesday.
