After nine consecutive years of producing the most anticipated show of the year, Simon-Olivier Fecteau suggests that he could pass the torch. “This may be my last Bye bye », he mentioned in an interview given while he was immersed in the final preparations for the big meeting on December 31.
Posted at 7:30 p.m.
“In my head, every year, when I finish, I tell myself that this is the last one. I’m not complaining, it’s a very nice mandate. But every time, it surprises me how gripping it is. It’s an extremely exhausting show to make,” confides Simon-Olivier Fecteau, contacted Friday while he was in the editing room.
The director and content producer will spend most of his time there until the evening of December 30. In theory, the filming, which took place over two weeks, has been completed since December 13. But if current events require it, the actors can return to film a sketch between now and the broadcast of the show, “which has already been seen,” specifies Simon-Olivier Fecteau. The authors, who are starting to work on the Bye bye at the end of August, are also ready to return to work if necessary.
With the political crisis in Ottawa, and the calls for Justin Trudeau’s resignation which have multiplied in recent days, the team Bye bye had to stay on the lookout.
The possibility that the Prime Minister could resign gave production a cold sweat. “It’s always stressful the last few days. But this year, it was a little more affair,” observes Simon-Olivier Fecteau, who avoids saying whether the Bye bye next week will reference the resignation of Chrystia Freeland.
And Bye bye less politically correct
Simon-Olivier Fecteau maintains a complete mystery about the significant events of the last year which will be mocked in the show. “We never want to make a Bye bye only political. Otherwise it would be a bit heavy. But it is clear that politics is very present, because there has been a lot of discussion both in Quebec and Ottawa as well as in the rest of the world this year. That said, there are also many non-political elements in the Bye bye to balance things out,” says the man who says he has not forbidden any subject in the end-of-year review.
Moreover, Simon-Olivier Fecteau, who also directed the two Bye bye of RBO in 2006 and 2007, does not feel that the freedom he enjoys is less than at the time. “I have the impression that the entire movement of ideological repression, very present in the last three, four years, is in the process of fading. I have the feeling that people expect a Bye Bye less politically correct », note one who also participates in the writing process.
He promises a Bye bye corrosive, but above all unifying and festive. Several surprise guests will take part, in addition to the core of star actors: Guylaine Tremblay, Claude Legault, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse and Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais.
Last year, nearly 4.6 million viewers watched the Bye Byeby far the most popular show in Quebec each year. If success is still there, Simon-Olivier Fecteau is not completely closing the door to achieving a tenth Bye bye straight away next year. After all, Dominique Michel did it to us many times before him.
Bye bye 2024broadcast on December 31, at 11 p.m., on ICI Télé
