A few days before the transition to 2025, here are five major elements that marked my last year as a television viewer.
Damned spider
In STATit was a spider, the famous Atrax robustus, which stole the show this fall. The tarantula has caused the worst concerns at Saint-Vincent hospital – and in the cottages! – during a good part of the fall, in addition to blurring the visual memory of poor Valérie, fortunately safe and sound. We have since learned that the spider, a regular on set, is called Émile and has his demands on a set, “playing” more effectively in the evening than in the morning.
Furthermore, the battle between STAT et Indefensible continued through the winter and into the fall. Even thoughIndefensible passed in front STAT several times in the polls in recent months, coinciding with the arrival of Maxim Roy in the TVA daily. On the other hand, the announced war between Dumas et The weapons on Monday at 8 p.m. did not take place, the first largely outweighing the second.
One time too many
With an allusion to racist connotations in March, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge pushed his luck, to the point of losing the most watched TV show in the country, Masked singersentrusted to an over the moon Sébastien Benoit, as well as the reality TV If we loved each other. However, TVA gave him a free pass after the vaccine affair and the strange outing at Gemini. But there are limits to defending the indefensible.
The artist has slipped away from the public sphere to do some introspection which will, we hope, be beneficial to him. The audience ratings of Masked singers did not suffer from it, any more than the career of his wife Émily Bégin, who we saw as an actress in the series FEM and who will soon be a professor at Star Academy.
The TV is bad, but…
There may be cuts everywhere, but the quality of our fiction is not altered with titles like IXE-13, Bellefleur, Separate company Then Black beastall captivating. But my favorite remains Watch over mein which Guylaine Tremblay and Pascale Renaud-Hébert offer an exceptional performance as a mother-daughter duo who love and tear each other apart. Available on ICI Tou.tv Extra, the miniseries will air this winter on ICI Télé, Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
On illico+, Crows proves with panache that suspense and horror can go well together, even in a Quebec series. Here again, a fabulous duo of actresses composed of Pascale Bussières and Mylène Mackay offer a powerful performance. On Crave, the refreshing novelty from Richard Blaimert, The return of Anna Brodeurcomes to satisfy our thirst for Quebec comedies. For their part, Red bracelets, Discussions with my parents, 5e rang et With a beating heart bid farewell to their many fans.
Gino is going
Remaining 17 years at the helm of a morning TV show, 21 if you count the weekend, constitutes an achievement. A year and a half after announcing it, Gino Chouinard leaves Hi hello in glory in June, leaving his place to Eve-Marie Lortie, at a time when TVA's financial situation is at its lowest and the team will have to leave the legendary studios on Boulevard Maisonneuve during the winter.
An important chapter closes for Gino Chouinard. (Robert Skinner/Archives La Presse)
At 56, Gino Chouinard leaves behind a book on his years as a morning host, entitled 3800 morningsand we will find him this winter among the participants of Get me out of here!a crazy adventure that he would not have allowed himself during his years as an early riser. At -, Johane Despins also left The grocery store after 17 years as co-host.
Dany Turcotte and the hard core
“Looking back, I am left with the impression that someone watched me drown without throwing a buoy at me.” These words from Dany Turcotte in a biography launched in October, D. Turcotte & filscreated quite a moment of unease when he came to Everyone is talking about it. Confronted by Guy A. Lepage about the misunderstanding surrounding his departure, the former madman clarified that he was speaking to the “hard core” of the team, which earned him mockery the following week.
“There is no dispute between us,” believed Dany Turcotte before coming to his old set. (Karine Dufour)
However, the two men were eating at the same table a few weeks earlier. “There is no bickering between us. I don’t think he’s angry,” Dany Turcotte told me at the time. Let us hope for this once complicit duo a proper reconciliation in the coming year. Resentment is never a good advisor.
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