Social networks not frequented by Stéphan Bureau sizzled and sizzled during Friday night’s controversial interview with comedian Julien Lacroix on TVA’s Upside-Down World.
Posted at 4:25 p.m
Basically, viewers paraded the interviewer’s curious approach, preachy tone, and numerous pauses in speaking, which they felt exuded arrogance.
Stéphan Bureau read several of these harsh comments, which severely detracted from his work, which he performed live at TVA’s studios. And on Sunday noon, 36 hours after his show aired, the host did what few showbiz royalty do: He issued a heartfelt apology before the newspaper commentators swooped down on him.
As Stéphan Bureau does not appear on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, he published his mea culpa on LinkedIn, a social network mainly used by business people. Nobody forced him to undress like that, they tell me. With no pressure from his bosses at TVA, no encouragement from his team at Le Monde à l’envers, he dived without testing the water temperature.
“It’s impossible to deny what’s obvious to me now, I wasn’t doing my best during this interview,” Stéphan Bureau wrote on LinkedIn, adding that he didn’t enjoy re-watching the interview.
The Le Monde à l’envers captain notes that he “probably looked like a prosecutor, that’s an attitude I decry in my colleagues and has been disturbing my sleep ever since”. He continues: “I don’t aspire to be a director of conscience because mine isn’t spotless either. »
This gesture of introspection, which is extremely rare in the media, honors Stéphan Bureau, I think. Have you ever seen a celebrity meddle in the Twister without the need to contain popular discontent or scandal? Not me. Typically, a star will apologize when they have no choice, when their reputation is falling, or when their sponsors are driving them to the wall after several days of violent storming. A celebrity never willingly jumps into web trolls.
Recognizing his clumsiness or uncovering certain weaknesses is already difficult in the private sphere, imagine that in public. This is a commendable exercise for a leader who is not immediately, rightly or wrongly, associated with the word “humility.”
Arrived on Monday, Stéphan Bureau seemed relaxed and sincere to me after this stormy weekend. “I don’t regret doing the interview at all. Could it be calibrated differently? Certainly yes. The tone could and should have been different. However, looking complacent was out of the question, you had to do the hard work before you could feel,” he tells me.
In retrospect, Stéphan Bureau, in his interview with Julien Lacroix, says that “empathy could have rhymed with severity”. And is it new for him to indulge in this form of public self-criticism? Not at all, he decides. “I used to do that every Friday morning on my radio show Bien-entendre on Radio-Canada,” he recalls.
Was the TV encounter between Stéphan Bureau and Julien Lacroix so catastrophic? Yes and no. The first part was awkward and choppy, that’s true. As he left, Stéphan Bureau seemed haughty, regularly interrupting his guest, rephrasing his answers and showing him who was boss on set (“Are you scared?”).
The two men obviously did not dance to the same rhythm, alternating between the host-imposed “vous” and the intimacy that is more natural in this type of confessional segment.
At the same time, Stéphan Bureau had no choice but to expose Julien Lacroix to this “wall of fire”. The reaction would have been a thousand times worse if he had cajoled the 30-year-old comedian or portrayed him as a poor victim. It would have been the apocalypse on Twitter.
The second part was more fluid, always with that noticeable tension in the air. Placing Julien Lacroix on the set of a talk show, something every Montreal producer has tried to do, automatically creates a polarizing atmosphere. Julien Lacroix’s critics are urging him to be ousted from the public eye. His defense attorneys believe that he should not have a trial before the People’s Court. And all these beautiful people are shouting insults at each other on Facebook.
Too nice, too demanding, not warm enough or not strict enough, Stéphan Bureau would have been peppered and dismembered no matter how he conducted the interview.
According to Numeris, Le monde à l’envers was watched by 678,000 viewers on Friday, slightly more than the 665,000 viewers who watched Les petits tannants on Radio-Canada.
Julien Lacroix made no conditions ahead of his interview with TVA. Stéphan Bureau recalls that he came with his visor up. “But I could have let him breathe more,” he admits.
Invited to Julien Lacroix, screenwriter François Avard, who has not used since February 1995, skillfully put the lid on this explosive pot by affirming: “We can change, we have the right to a second chance. »
I agree.