Alain Chabat has the ability to transform what he touches into gold and TF1 has understood this well. By entrusting him with the controls of an exclusive late show, launched this November 21 at 10:55 p.m., the front page is betting on succeeding where all previous attempts have failed. The Chabat leg could well be the keystone that will allow the chain of the Bouygues group to achieve this feat.
Revealed with Les Nuls, Alain Chabat has already proven that he is capable of resuscitating the Burger Quiz on TMC and create excitement among the younger generations during the last edition of the Z-Event. With a sometimes schoolboy, sometimes irreverent humor, the 63-year-old comedian puts his person – and his humor – in everything he does.
Pre-recorded between late October and early November, the ten issues of Late with Alain Chabat promise a comeback of the host in a format he had dreamed of for several years. 20 minutes attended one of these recordings and tells you what Alain Chabat’s touch will be in this new program.
Animator “in all forms”
When asked how he defines himself, Alain Chabat answers with the humor that we know him. “My most beautiful role is that of father”, he slices the mischievous look before ensuring that he has “no idea” of the best way to define himself. Comedian, host, producer, agitator… His many years of career have allowed him to tick many boxes. “There are plenty of forms to exploit, that’s what’s great”, he concludes simply.
Among the latest challenges that caught his eye but which he hadn’t had the chance to tackle yet, was that of hosting his own “late show”. View of the lights of a night city, desk for the entertainer and sofa for the guests. The codes mobilized for the show embodied by the ex-Nul leave no room for doubt, it is an “American” format. Faced with this decor, 300 people have taken their places in the audience and are impatient to discover the contours of the program broadcast on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar.
Coming out from behind the imposing blue curtain on the left of the stage, Alain Chabat is acclaimed while the Laters – the group that plays the show’s jingles live – sing a tune in which his name is repeated many times. . On the styling side, the host of this new show opted for simplicity in a three-piece black suit.
“To split the mouth” with the guests
Many prestigious guests will follow one another on the list of guests of the new program. Because Alain Chabat is also an address book that unfolds like an endless parchment.
The host knows how to mobilize his friends when it comes to filling the sofas facing him on the show. But the objective for him is not “to send heavy”, it is especially “to see them split the mouth and come out happy”.
In the meantime, given the reception from the public, there can be no doubt that the star of the recordings is him. From left to right, he greets the public, smiling, addressing some “thank you” to certain spectators seated on the bleachers. Before settling down at his desk, he lets himself go with a little sway as if to thank the musicians who accompany him on the set.
Interviews in the form of sketches
Once at his office, Alain Chabat sorts his files and settles into his role as host of the evening. Hidden behind the curtain, his guest – whose identity we cannot reveal to you – is waiting to be announced to tread the stage in turn. “Do we shake hands to say hello? asks the host. His guest nods. “I would have offered a finger in the ass but I think it’s too familiar,” adds Chabat. The audience is hilarious, the show hasn’t even really started yet.
Far from a traditional interview on the news of the guests, it is a wacky dialogue that takes place between the host and his interlocutor once installed on the sofa. That evening the guest presents his “gift”: guessing the nature of a product from its barcode. In total, three personalities follow one another in front of the ex-Nul and even the musical guest bends to a stuffed second-degree interview, 1,000 leagues from where we are used to seeing him.
Because Alain Chabat knows how to handle irony brilliantly. “In a second, the public understands where we are, there is a real bond with people. And fortunately they understand that everything we say is not true, otherwise we would be in deep shit, ”commented the host during a press conference a few hours before the recording.
“Qatar, home to polar bears”
The evening is also punctuated by pre-recorded video sequences. This gives the show a more political dimension. If no hot current topic is approached because of the temporality of the recordings almost a month before the broadcast, Alain Chabat does not hesitate to evoke major social issues. From the World Cup in Qatar, for which TF1 has the broadcasting rights, to the addiction to new technologies and the fate of polar bears, undermined by global warming…
“With their open-air air conditioning, the Qataris have created the perfect atmosphere for polar wildlife to thrive. […] Qatar, the first land of reception of polar bears in the world”, we will hear in a fake advertising spot. A real snub to the World Cup in Qatar, which was broadcast before the Late with Alain Chabat. Proof of the “total freedom” enjoyed by the facilitator.
Especially since even if successful, he remains skeptical about the possibility of renewing the format once the ten episodes have been broadcast. “Apart from shaking up the entire TF1 grid, I don’t see how that would be possible. “In the meantime, he intends to take advantage of the specifications of the show which was presented to him as a blank page. “I was told that the audience was not a subject for TF1. [On] told me to have fun and do the show that would make me happy,” he said. Chick?