Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine welcomed 20 minutes in his office in early July with a broad smile. The host of C to you had the satisfaction of the challenges accomplished. She had just concluded a season marked by the presidential election, a program length extended by half an hour and the arrival of new faces, Matthieu Belliard and Mohamed Bouhafsi, who, she says, “integrated with ease disconcerting”. No obstacle stood in its way: with an average of 1.2 million viewers (6.8% audience share) watching each evening, from 7 p.m., the talking de France 5 even achieved its second best season in history.
Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine intends to start the new season this Monday on this dynamic. Political personalities will be regularly invited and, among them, why not Prince Charles? In the meantime, she announces to us that Vincent Lindon will be the special guest of this back-to-school program and that he will stay until the end to react to the news.
What new features can we expect in “C à Vous” this fall?
The first part does not move. In part 2, new, there is the humorous tablet “I was at that”. The “Stone’s Eye” sequence will now conclude a notepad carried by all the columnists. These are marginal adjustments, you shouldn’t say “Come on, we’re changing everything!” »
“I was at that” will be a fiction, off set. Why add it to the summary?
Our viewers love the family that represents C to you. It’s good to have a new face. This two-and-a-half-minute pastille on the setbacks of a thirty-year-old [incarnée par Zoé Bruneau], allows you to have a different story, a different profile. It’s a very produced, angled and funny mini-fiction: each time the character “was up to it”. It fits the spirit of C to you where we are always a bit close to perfection (laughs).
Do you plan to relocate the set? For example at the Cannes Film Festival, now that France Télévisions is one of the partners…
I dream about it ! For Cannes, I don’t know. Our first part is news, sometimes dramatic. Difficult to treat it on set on the Croisette. Last season, it seemed inconceivable with the presidential election. But I want to event C to youto make original formats, built around exceptional personalities or a particular event.
What personality would you dream of receiving?
We were talking about Prince Charles before you arrived (laughs). We said we would write to him. Before we met with Sarah Ferguson, they explained to me that it was very structured, that she wouldn’t talk about this or that. And then she arrived, we joked. It seems light like that, but she has a crazy personality, this woman! It was one of the hits of the year. Prince Charles would have plenty to say. As we have seen, he gets involved in politics when he shouldn’t. Brigitte Macron, too, I would love to. I met her quickly on the Yellow Pieces operation, we talked about social issues. I find her hypermodern and, in my opinion, she is inspiring for many women because she is very disruptive, she has made life choices that are not insignificant.
The past season of “C to You” was marked by the presidential election. Covering her was exhilarating? Stressful ?
It was more empowering than exhilarating. When the televiewers see us with political leaders, it is stronger than them, they try to guess which is our edge. We do the same job for each guest. We have to maintain the balance, by remaining ourselves, that is to say neither too technical nor too light, by providing information, but in our own way. It was stimulating but we knew our responsibility, especially in a climate where there are a lot of opinions, on the news channels in particular. We try to be first and foremost an information programme, with our touch, our angles, our editorial choices which differ from those of the news. We have a longer interview time and without the institutional side of a political program. We had to find the tone, it was exciting.
Do you plan to continue to receive political figures this season?
Yes. There will be fewer elections, but we can see how lively political life is going to be. As we follow C in the airwhich is a program for experts, our desire, which has grown stronger over the years, is to receive actors and actresses in the news, therefore political leaders, or associations, business leaders or great athletes.
Receiving Emmanuel Macron, was it the strongest moment of the last season?
It was a very special moment. He campaigned very little. C to you is the only one talking that he did. There was still an hour and forty of serious interview with journalists, before arriving at the chronicle of Bertrand Chameroy. There hadn’t been a thousand opportunities to confront him with his program. I had a little adrenaline rush before the show and then he came in, we greeted each other and I said to myself: “OK, he’s going to play the game”. I was as I am with others. I’m not telling you that there isn’t a little stage fright, but I was under so much pressure when I received Eric Zemmour or Jordan Bardella, these are always times when you have to go for it, without being aggressive.
Bertrand Chameroy’s columns have been very noticed, with great virality on social networks…
By coming every evening, Bertrand Chameroy exploded. This is an appointment that our guests do not want to miss. Muriel Robin told me that she watches C to you at 7 p.m. and there is always a time when she has to change rooms, so she pauses and runs away so as not to miss Bertrand’s column under any circumstances. He created this appointment with the viewers, it only went up.
You are one of the only shows to have continued live on set during the first confinement. Do you think that has established her in the television landscape?
I think so. Recently, a film producer said to me: “Without C to you, I would not have held out. Someone else confided in me that he had stopped watching the news channels because it was on repeat but knew that at 7 p.m., with us, he would be informed and that there would always be a moment when there was would have more lightness. This combination, I feel that it did people good. Of course, we didn’t save any lives, but we were a bit of a beacon in the night. We didn’t move, we were there, keeping our spirit, smiling and serious, no opinion, no invective, just facts.
You are about to start your sixth season at the controls of “C à Vous”. You don’t feel tired?
Every day, the news carries us. No one feels like they’re going in circles. The topics to be covered are endlessly vast. There are guests that we have received several times but that creates a kind of complicity with the artists which is great to experience. They feel at home here. Bigflo and Oli, who came at the end of last season, told us: “We don’t forget that each time we participated in the show it marked a new stage in our career. Clara Luciani, who we will receive for the live this Monday evening, made her first TV in C to you.
Do you look at what your “Daily” and “Do not touch my post” competitors are doing?
When I’m in makeup, I look at who their guests are. Sometimes I tell myself that they had a good idea, sometimes that we have already done it… Often, on social networks, I see certain sequences. It is without any rivalry. It’s just that it’s important to know how they behave, the editorial choices they make. We realize that we have a guideline, desires, habits with our viewers that mean that we don’t especially walk on each other’s toes.