Building on two record years 2021 and 2022 (New window), Bye bye returns with a 55th edition on ICI TÉLÉ on Sunday at 11 p.m. After a two-year absence, Claude Legault is back in the team, which will have the delicate task of ending a rather bleak 2023 in the news with some lightness.
This is Simon-Olivier Fecteau's eighth year as director of Bye Bye, which he co-produced with Guillaume Lspérance. After a year overshadowed by war and in particular the still devastating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he considers himself lucky to be able to count on the experience he has gained since 2016.
This is where experience comes into play. “If this had been our first bye bye, we would not have known how to make it funny this year, because there are many events that are very sad, very dramatic,” he explained at the microphone of Maxime Coutié in the program Tout un matin.
Claude Legault will form the main comic core together with Guylaine Tremblay, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse and Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais. The quartet is supported by several personalities who will make surprise appearances.
No sketches about Gaza or the war in Ukraine
Even though the director generally believes that you can laugh at everything, in his annual review there was no question of tackling the war in Ukraine or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict head-on. “We didn't have any flash to make it funny, there won't be any sketches directly on it,” he summarized.
The Bye-bye team has, as usual, commented on which personalities or events to parody, but Simon-Olivier Fecteau assures that he has found funny aspects in all the darkness. Scratching a little, there are also funny elements and there are plenty of them to make a good show.
Open in full screen mode
Simon-Olivier Fecteau says goodbye for the eighth time this year.
Photo: A Media
A popular valve
However, the director admits that reaching a large audience is becoming increasingly difficult, especially given the division of audiences between traditional television, social networks and countless broadcast platforms.
It becomes more difficult. I would say that COVID-19 helped us a lot with “Bye Bye” because we had a lot of common references. “It's over and we feel it,” he explained at the microphone of Eugénie Lépine-Blondeau in the program “C'est ma tour”.
Simon-Olivier Fecteau's recipe for a good farewell? First you need a strong team, then you have to find a way to deal with popular annoyances with humor. It's a fun, festive show, it's New Year's, we want to laugh… It's kind of a popular outlet.
It remains to be seen whether the 55th edition of Bye bye can surpass the numbers of Bye bye 2021, which retains its gold medal with 4.86 million viewers.
Bye bye 2023 will be broadcast on ICI Télé on Sunday at 11 p.m. The show will air again on Monday, January 1 at 9 p.m.