In a world where excuses multiply and where the figures don’t lie, Jean-Charles Lajoie, flagship host of TVA Sports, has found a surprising new explanation for his audience setbacks.
. While his show is stagnating at ratings worthy of a community channel – barely 20,000 viewers – Lajoie firmly believes that the return of Patrik Laine will change the situation. Nothing less.
“Since Tuesday evening, everything has changed,” enthuses Lajoie in a flight worthy of a sensationalist prophet.
According to him, Laine, with his lightning shot and his imposing stature, is the shock that will wake up not only the Montreal Canadiens, but also his own television ratings at half mast.
Montreal now has two of the ten best shooters in the League: Cole Caufield and Patrik Laine. This duo is a godsend for his shows according to him. With them, he will seek the enthusiasm he lacked.
If Laine’s return is synonymous with hope for the Canadian, it also seems to have become the common thread in Lajoie’s strategy to turn around his audiences.
He says it loud and clear: his numbers have suffered from his absence. Hockey fans were demotivated, but Laine will bring back the magic. From now on, everything can change.
The link between the TVA Sports ratings setbacks and a player injury is not clear to everyone, but Lajoie persists.
It’s simple: when the team stagnates, the fans drop out. With Laine in great shape, spectacular goals will rain down, and people will return en masse in front of their screens if we trust Lajoie’s words.
Despite his overflowing optimism, recent figures leave little room for hope. TVA Sports audiences continue to collapse.
Compared to the millions of potential subscribers that Quebecor hoped to attract, the situation is disastrous. Even the return of a star player like Laine may not be enough to close the gap.
One sniper is good, two is better, insists Lajoie, convinced that Laine and Caufield will transform not only the CH’s power play, but also its own media future.
He believes in this team, and he believes it will be reflected in his ratings.
However, several experts agree that TVA Sports’ problem far exceeds the performance of the Canadiens’ players.
The channel’s management, programming choices and a widespread loss of viewer trust have sent the entire network into a downward spiral.
The ratings for certain programs are now at the level of traffic or weather channels and criticism of management is increasing.
Even in this difficult context, Lajoie refuses to give up.
He is preparing for a spectacular comeback. His show is ready to take off, and Laine is the keystone of this success.
Wait until you see the numbers next week…it will change everything. Who believes it? Raise your hand.
If Lajoie seeks to reassure hockey fans and his bosses, his comments raise questions. Is it realistic to believe that a single player can save a struggling show?
Or is this simply a desperate attempt to distract from TVA Sports’ real structural problems?
The truth is that Lajoie clings to Laine like a lifeline.
Jean-Charles Lajoie is playing big by banking on the return of Patrik Laine to boost his ratings.
If the player manages to breathe new life into the Canadian, this could indeed attract more viewers.
But the reality is that the problems with TVA Sports and Lajoie’s show go far beyond the performance of a single player.
For now, Lajoie hopes that Laine, nicknamed the “pure wool of Sainte-Flanelle”, can reignite fans’ interest and offer him a reprieve in an unforgiving media landscape.
If the audiences do not follow, even a lightning strike from Laine will not be enough to save Lajoie from the coming storm.
“There are these evenings, here in Montreal, where the magic takes hold. The return of Patrik Laine allowed this alignment of planets of which the city seems to have the secret,” he declared, hoping that the return of the Finnish player could breathe new impetus into his show.
However, Lajoie’s problems are far from isolated. They are part of a much broader crisis affecting Quebecor, owner of TVA Sports and QUB Radio, two divisions in great difficulty.
In the corridors of Quebecor, the atmosphere is heavy. Frustration reigns among employees, shaken by massive layoffs in 2023, with nearly 50% of TVA Group’s workforce laid off.
Meanwhile, TVA Sports audiences are collapsing.
Added to this are the disastrous figures for QUB Radio, which is struggling to attract listeners despite a costly transition to the FM band. S
According to the latest Numeris surveys, Mario Dumont does not even exceed 2% market share in the morning slot, and Richard Martineau does even worse at the end of the day.
This situation contrasts violently with the domination of 98.5 FM, which remains the most listened to station in Montreal despite a slight decline since the departure of Paul Arcand.
The crisis does not end there. The director of information at TVA Nouvelles, Xavier Brassard-Bédard, recently announced his departure, leaving behind a news service weakened by repeated cutbacks.
This departure, although presented as a “new challenge”, is seen by many as abandoning the ship before it sinks.
The remaining employees, whether at TVA Nouvelles or at the Journal de Montréal, will soon have to share the same offices in a context of rationalization of resources
This grouping, planned for 4545 rue Frontenac, is the symbol of a media empire forced to reinvent itself to survive.
At the top of this crisis is Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor, whose compensation is sparking outrage.
In 2023, Péladeau earned a salary of $4.9 million, an increase of 57% from the previous year.
Added to this are the remunerations of his brothers, Jean B. Péladeau (1.9 million) and Érik Péladeau ($920,700), reinforcing the idea that the family benefits greatly from a declining empire.
This contrast between the salary increases for managers and the massive job losses within TVA Group is shocking.
While Péladeau justifies these layoffs by a “difficult economic context,” his actions seem to fuel resentment, particularly among employees sacrificed to maintain financial balance.
Meanwhile, Jean-Charles Lajoie pockets $400,000 per year.
The challenges facing Quebecor are not limited to TVA Sports or QUB Radio. The empire’s two flagship newspapers, the Journal de Montréal and the Journal de Québec, were also in difficulty.
Although LCN remains the most watched news channel in Quebec, the survival of the entire network seems increasingly uncertain.
Jean-Charles Lajoie and TVA Sports alone embody Quebecor’s recent failures. Lajoie, in his quest to revive his audiences, places his hopes on external factors such as the return of Patrik Laine, but this strategy further illustrates a lack of control and vision.
As for Quebecor, financial difficulties are accumulating, amplified by management perceived as disconnected from the realities of employees.
If Péladeau hopes to maintain the integrity of his empire, he will face critical decisions: cutting losses, regaining employee trust and, above all, finding a new path for his media platforms.
For the moment, neither Lajoie nor Péladeau seem able to reverse the trend. The next few years promise to be decisive, and perhaps fatal, for a faltering empire.
