This Saturday, from 11:25 p.m., Léa Salamé will kick off What an era!, France 2’s new weekly talk show. Why ? Because this time slot is not like the others. “The second part of the Saturday evening is one of the highlights of our week, it is an identity meeting for the public service”, underlines Nicolas Daniel, the director of the magazine unit of France Télévisions.
“There is an institutional side, this niche is identified by the viewer. It has always been a meeting place, a mix of genres. It is also characterized by its freedom of tone, it has always been a place where we have been able to say things”, notes Léa Salamé who says that she “grew up watching Thierry Ardisson on TV”.
“It was the village square, the agora, the forum”
The man in black is indeed the one who shaped this very special moment of the grid of the second chain. Everybody talks about it, which he presented from 1998 to 2006, is a cult show. In a setting à la Giorgio de Chirico on a limited budget – white columns and immaculate curtains turning blue by the grace of the spotlights – the host received politicians and porn stars, revelations of song and big names in cinema, comedians and pipoles, philosophers and conspiracy theorists. An explosive mixture – often accentuated by the effect of alcohol served open bar in the dressing rooms – where the personalities lent themselves to the game of “thematic” interviews. This is how Michel Rocard found himself having to answer the question “Sucking is cheating?” “. The problematic sequences were not extremely rare, but they did not indignant many people at the time.
“It was the village square, the agora, the forum, summed up Thierry Ardisson in 20 minutes three years ago, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Everybody talks about it. Often, on Saturday evening, I was at the restaurant, and I saw people leaving to see my show. It was still crazy, it was a social phenomenon. We went up to 2 million viewers, 32% market share! »
When Laurent Ruquier succeeded him with We are not in bed, ONPC for those close to them, the challenge was therefore daunting. At the time, he had already been hosting for several seasons We tried everything, daily at the end of the afternoon on the second channel, a joyous catch-all between schoolboy gang spirit and promotional service. By resuming the second part of the Saturday evening, he had to put on a more serious hat, in order to deal with political and cultural news. “Having presented It swings in Parison Paris Premiere [durant la saison 2005-2006] helped me a lot,” he says today, acknowledging that without this experience, he would not have felt able to take up the challenge.
The wicked columnists of “We are not lying”
ONPC took up the idea of the iconoclastic casting of the guests of Everybody talks about it and Laurent Ruquier has relied each season on two columnists who do not mince their words. The pairs composed, depending on the year, of Michel Polac, Eric Naulleau, Eric Zemmour, Audrey Pulvar, Natacha Polony, Yann Moix, Aymeric Caron or Christine Angot – non-exhaustive list – were feared by the guests. ” ONPC invented an incredible trick, that is, people [y allaient] to be massacred, joked Thierry Ardisson in 2019. Me, it was never my way of doing things. »
” In ONPCwe were less and less mean over the years because there are things that no longer happened, ”defends Léa Salamé, columnist between 2014 and 2016. Now it is up to her to take up the torch, after having co-hosted We are live with Laurent Ruquier last season. “We place ourselves in the filiation of this box, she announces. We will keep this idea of the meeting. A politician sitting next to an influencer, etc. For freedom of speech, of course, times have changed, we are no longer at “Sucking is cheating?”, we can say things less. But she hopes the mix of styles will spark some sparks.
No more snipers
“The time of Ardisson was a long time ago, the audiences, the structures, the competition are no longer the same, continues Régis Lamanna-Rodat, the producer. We want to make a festive, spectacular show, where there is tension, stakes, debate and where we have fun. This is our primary ambition. »
Also, if Christophe Dechavanne will intervene every week, it will not be as a sniper like a Laurent Baffie of the great era of Everybody talks about it – “the time is sufficiently anxiety-provoking,” says Léa Salamé – not as a columnist, but as a “permanent guest”. By this funny formulation, it must be understood that he will intervene every week with a white card. “My goal is to be my Twitter account: bullshit, super schoolboy stuff and stuff that [me] angry,” he warns.
Philippe Caverivière, who will write a humorous column, has in mind those who preceded him: “As a spectator, I loved waiting for Florence Foresti, Jonathan Lambert, Nicolas Bedos [dans On n’est pas couché]. It’s always been my favorite time of the week. I said yes to this box because I think I will still grow and progress in this exercise. »
“We arrive as an outsider”
Léa Salamé, she affirms and repeats it, she is about to launch the program “without pretension” and with “humility”. “I take a risk. I have built a very career as a political journalist. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone, I’m not in the pure interview. When I was a columnistWe are not in bed, it was the first talk show in France, we had a 25% market share. Since then, that has changed. Daily, It’s up to you, TPMP settled in. We arrive as an outsider, we come from zero. At the morning of France Inter, I can have all the excluded that I want, there, it is necessary to fight to convince. »
The contract signed with France 2 includes an audience clause. The producer wants to take a little pressure off: “The channel will give us time to settle down. What she asks of us is to do a show where things happen. The survival of the cult spirit of the nights from Saturdays to Sundays of France 2 depends on it.