As 2025 prepares to begin, one thing is clear: Élizabeth Rancourt finds herself at a decisive turning point in her career.
Since succeeding Louis Jean at TVA Sports in 2023, her professional trajectory has been marked by controversy, incessant criticism and insurmountable challenges.
A few months before the start of crucial negotiations for the renewal of NHL broadcast rights, the pressure is immense.
The 2025-2026 season will be decisive for Rancourt and for TVA Sports. If she fails to turn things around, her future in the media could be seriously compromised.
When Louis Jean left TVA Sports in the winter of 2023, Élizabeth Rancourt inherited his place as the main figure of hockey evening.
This role, coveted and demanding, became a real ordeal for her from the start. His appointment immediately sparked mixed reactions.
Viewers, accustomed to Louis Jean's professional and composed style, found it difficult to accept the change. The comparison was inevitable, and Rancourt found herself under the microscope, judged for her every move and word.
From her first year in office, Élizabeth Rancourt made numerous missteps, attracting criticism from all sides. Among his biggest errors are his inflammatory comments about respected figures in Quebec hockey.
The summer of 2023 was particularly difficult: her attacks on Marc Denis, whom she accused of “playing an image game” with his impeccable French, shocked the public.
“Moderate your vocabulary. You don't have to be perfect. I prefer someone who has less vocabulary, but who will draw me into emotion”she declared during a podcast, sparking general indignation.
But it was his charge against Carey Price that really made an impression. She questioned Price's passion for hockey, accusing him of only playing for the money.
“In my opinion, this athlete doesn't like hockey. He went there because he had the talent, but this guy, in my opinion, he just wants to go out West and fish and hunt. That’s it,” she said.
These comments, considered cruel and inappropriate, deeply shocked the supporters of the Montreal Canadiens, who saw in Price a legendary figure who sacrificed his health for the team.
His attacks did not stop there. She also criticized PK Subban, calling him a “stinky” player, a comment that was seen as insensitive, even discriminatory, given the prejudice Subban often faced.
These slip-ups have driven a wedge between Rancourt and a significant part of his audience.
Beyond personal controversies, Rancourt's professional performances failed to appeal to the public.
Since his arrival at the helm of hockey evening, TVA Sports' ratings have been in free fall. Viewers, tired of his controversies and frustrated by the fact that the darling Louis Jean is no longer there, are turning more and more to the competition, notably RDS, or to streaming platforms.
The drop in audiences has put the channel in a delicate position, especially since the NHL broadcast contract expires in the summer of 2026.
The pressure on Rancourt does not only come from the public. Internally, his arrival also caused tensions.
The fact that she took the place of Dave Morissette, a popular figure among hockey fans, was poorly received by some colleagues.
In addition, his direct style and his strong positions sometimes created friction with the production team.
These internal conflicts, combined with external criticism, contributed to shattering his status within TVA Sports.
Despite these challenges, TVA Sports management has not yet abandoned Rancourt. They know she has talent and extensive knowledge of hockey, but she absolutely needs to change her strategy.
The 2025-2026 season will be her last chance to prove that she can be a unifying and respected leader.
Rancourt will have to abandon personal criticism and concentrate on constructive analyses. She will have to show that she can promote players and teams without falling into controversy.
TVA Sports must set up a team to help it refine its interventions, better manage criticism and avoid slip-ups.
Rancourt's success will not only be crucial for her, but also for TVA Sports. If it fails to regain viewers' trust, it could weaken the channel's position in negotiations with the NHL.
The broadcast rights to the Montreal Canadiens are essential for TVA Sports, and losing this contract could have disastrous consequences for the entire channel.
Despite these efforts, the road will be long and difficult. Rancourt carries the weight of her past mistakes behind her, and it will be difficult to convince the most critical fans to give her a second chance.
Plus, competition is fierce. RDS, with figures like Marc Denis, continues to dominate the market, and digital platforms are gaining popularity.
For Élizabeth Rancourt, the year 2025-2026 is one of all dangers. She will not only have to prove that she has learned from her mistakes, but also show that she can adapt and evolve in an environment that does not forgive missteps.
If she succeeds, she will not only be able to save her career, but also help ensure the future of TVA Sports in the Quebec media landscape.
If she fails, she risks seeing her career in sports media end prematurely.
One thing is certain: all of Quebec will follow this story closely. It’s either make or break.
Because if the Rancourt controversies were already a heavy burden to bear, the year 2025 could prove even more trying, because it will have to navigate in a context where the finances of TVA Sports now dictate its actions on screen.
And these actions, sometimes humiliating, only exacerbate the criticism.
TVA Sports' financial situation is so precarious that the channel has recently adopted desperate strategies to generate revenue.
The use of product placement, usually reserved for podcasts or smaller channels, was invited onto the sets of hockey evening, causing real discomfort.
The most notable episode of this new reality took place live, when Rancourt was forced to promote Salvatore pizzas.
The scene was almost unreal. Élizabeth Rancourt, visibly uncomfortable, tried to praise the merits of the pizzas placed in front of her, while her colleagues, Michel Therrien and Éric Fichaud, struggled to mask their embarrassment.
Therrien displayed a forced smile, while Fichaud completely avoided meeting anyone's eyes, preferring to divert his attention so as not to participate in this embarrassing moment.
This scene, immortalized in a photo widely distributed on social networks, quickly sparked a reaction.
The journalist Maxime Truman, known for his outspokenness, did not fail to ridicule the situation.
“Looks like the next step is to disguise Michel Therrien as a human pizza and have him drive a Mazda 5! » he quipped in a scathing article.
But beyond the ridiculous, this episode illustrates a much deeper problem: the deterioration of the editorial line of traditional sports media, pushed to mix advertising and editorial content in an attempt to stay afloat.
The Salvatore pizza incident reminds us of the financial challenges facing TVA Sports. Since its creation in 2011, the chain has been accumulating deficits, and things have gotten worse over the years.
In 2014, TVA Sports had approximately 1.8 million subscribers. Today, this figure is on track to fall below the one million mark, according to the most recent CRTC data. RDS, although also affected by a drop in subscriptions, remains at 1.7 million, and above all, avoids asking its employees to humiliate themselves on screen.
This difference is partly explained by management. RDS benefits from better distributed resources and an editorial line which, despite financial challenges, remains professional and coherent.
TVA Sports, for its part, seems to have lost control of its image by multiplying questionable decisions. The Salvatore incident is only one example among others of this drift, but it alone symbolizes the scale of the problem.
In this context, Élizabeth Rancourt will not only have to straighten out her personal image, but also deal with the commercial demands of TVA Sports.
The use of product placement and awkward sponsorships could become the norm, and Rancourt will need to demonstrate exemplary professionalism to navigate these troubled waters without losing further credibility.
However, it is a difficult balance to find.
The Salvatore incident caused a scandal on the internet, and it would not be surprising if other sponsorships of the same type arise during the 2025-2026 season.
If these placements continue to generate negative reactions, the situation could become untenable, both for Rancourt and for the channel.
In addition, the public's perception of TVA Sports risks deteriorating even further, worsening the ratings problems.
The situation at TVA Sports is so worrying that some experts wonder if the channel will be able to survive beyond 2026.
If it loses the NHL broadcast rights, it would likely be the end of the adventure for the broadcaster, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
Already, voices are being raised to suggest that Quebecor, owner of TVA Sports, is considering selling the channel to Sportsnet or seeking a partnership with giants like Amazon, which are increasingly positioning themselves in the field of sports broadcasting.
For Élizabeth Rancourt, this means that 2025-2026 will not only be a crucial year for her career, but also for her own professional survival.
If TVA Sports were to close its doors, it could find itself without a platform, and its past controversies could complicate its chances of finding a new position in sports media.
Élizabeth Rancourt begins 2025-2026 with a lot of baggage: past mistakes, persistent criticism, and now, the need to juggle her role as host and that of unwitting spokesperson for embarrassing product placements.
If she succeeds in regaining the public's trust, she could not only save her career, but also help breathe new life into TVA Sports.
But if she fails, it will probably be the end of the adventure, for her and for the channel.
In a constantly evolving media environment, where financial challenges increasingly dictate editorial choices, Rancourt and TVA Sports find themselves at a crossroads.
It’s up to them to raise their heads and go for it.
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