December 31 is Radio-Canada’s most expensive night, but also its most profitable.
• Also read: “Bye Bye 2022”: the sketches and characters most appreciated by the audience
• Also read: Bye bye 2022: a friendly and good-natured issue
The most profitable in terms of ratings, because Radio-Canada’s creative and inscrutable bookkeeping makes it utterly impossible to ascertain the true cost of its four flagship end-of-year programs: Live New Year’s Eve, See You Next Year, Infoman and the traditional Bye.
Is the public broadcaster making a good deal? Yes, because it allows him to monopolize listening one night a year. And even two! On New Year’s Eve it often happens that the covers still give him the hegemony of listening. Does this benefit advertisers, especially those who take the trouble to design messages that only air on Bye Bye? Yes, because they suddenly reach four to five million Quebecers, almost the entire French-speaking population aged 18 and over.
While ethically questionable, Bye Bye’s promotional messages blend with the show’s taboo content for the rest of the year. Radio-Canada will stop at nothing to attract sponsors and even ran a competition to crown the most popular bye-bye commercial message. A prize will be raffled off among the viewers who voted correctly. Someday, if you want, we’ll talk about tandem and the genre confusion again!
THE MOST EXPENSIVE SHOW
Without knowing the real numbers, it’s easy to guess that Bye Bye is the most expensive of the four shows. Follows Live New Year’s Eve, Infoman and See you next year, the poor foursome. Even if it is a simple radio show that is picked up at the Corona Theater, See you next year, which is broadcast between two extraordinary shows, still attracts almost two million viewers.
From the concept of their weekly shows, France Beaudoin and her team have created an authentic gem. Live New Year’s Day is a festive, connecting and moving special with an irresistible opening that pins viewers in their place each year. Absolutely nothing to complain about, except that the “kidnapped” stars are becoming more and more cacophonous every year, forgetting the viewers who cannot follow their words.
THE PALM TREE BY JEAN-RENÉ DUFORT
With the exception of a few (Indélodgeable, Le monde à l’envers, Les déboires à l’Aéroport, among others) most of the bye-bye sketches were well done, but a few vulgarities made my ears curl, as did the monkeypox sketch no worthy broadcaster would have accepted. I also point out an insulting response to Pierre Poilièvre, whom Rogatien (the taxi driver played by Patrick Huard) accused of speaking French like a sweeper. It was all the more shocking because the leader of the Conservative Party (the real one, that one!) had just spoken to Jean-René Dufort in very good French.
Year after year we wonder if Dufort’s review shouldn’t replace Bye Bye. For a fraction of the cost, Infoman still manages to amaze without shocking and without causing controversy. This year, the idea of asking our political figures to accompany a Ukrainian choir was brilliant. One day it will be recognized that the indefatigable Dufort is unique in the world of television, both here and elsewhere.
