A few days before the great summer crossover between July and Augustians on the roads, TF1 intends to deliver a reminder of the Highway Code to its viewers thanks to the first issue of the Big Quiz, the first entertainment hosted by Hélène Mannarino on the bonus channel. Over forty questions, 150 people from the public and six personalities will be divided into three age categories: 18-34 years old, 35-49 years old and 50 years and over.
The facilitator will check the knowledge of each group while revealing a few anecdotes about the guests present on the set, namely Amandine Petit, Gwendal Marimoutou, Julie Ferrier, Yoann Riou, Chantal Ladesou and François Berléand. For 20 minutes, Hélène Mannarino confides in this new role.
Did you immediately accept the offer to host The Big Quiz ?
It’s weird, because it’s while talking with TF1 and the ALP teams [la société de production] that I realized I accepted. We didn’t say it’s yes or it’s no. I was offered to do that, we built things together. And that’s what interests me, building a project. We all wanted the same thing bringing my paw. If I’m there, it’s important for me to show who I am. So I brought the appeal to relatives, the anecdotes so that people who are watching say to themselves “Hey, I’m like François Berléand. We had this common project which happened naturally.
With this program, you temporarily move away from journalism to devote yourself to animation. Did the shoot go any differently from your other shows?
Not at all. I’m the same, I’m a journalist in my blood, so everything I do I do with a journalistic perspective. At no time did I tell myself that by being there, I was a facilitator. I am Hélène Mannarino, journalist by passion. I’ve always wanted to do this, info is at the heart of everything I do. That’s why I really cared about set info and guest info. I did a lot of investigation and research to keep that fiber. It’s in me to approach things like that, it’s not something that I created or tampered with. After that, yes, we are in an entertainment program, indeed. But journalists have personalities, I’m still a young woman of thirty, I live with a roommate, I laugh with my friends. This is something that I am and I show it more easily in The Big Quiz than with a news or a report. But I didn’t tell myself that I was a facilitator there.
How did you prepare to host this show?
I prepared things with as much rigor as a newscast, a news slice, a report or a portrait. The technique changes: ask the questions, give the answers. The form is different: the percentages of who answered well, managing the audience, thinking about the people at home… The score is different, but the substance remains the same. I didn’t tell myself that for a weekend, I was a TV host. I just did my job as a journalist differently.
Between Retroscopy on TMC, The Big Quiz on TF1 and soon the morning of LCI, would you say that you are at a turning point in your career?
Every time someone offered me something, I took it as a turning point. I think first of doing things right. For me, work is the key to everything. I work 24 hours a day, but I don’t think about that because it would put extra pressure on me, when I want her to be in the challenge given to me and the confidence given to me. Each Unexpected portrait was a turning point, each Emergency calls, the Retroscopy and surely the others who will follow I hope, the LCI news… Everything is a turning point and I move forward with seriousness, rigor and concentration. I don’t think about the after, I think about the moment.
TF1 has relatively few female faces in its ranks at the head of entertainment as a bonus. How do you feel about being a part of it?
We are all a family, to say that we are not a lot of women is not true. There are a lot of women, I am thinking of Anne-Claire Coudray, Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, Alessandra Sublet, Tatiana Silva, Karine Ferri. I don’t tell myself that I was chosen because I am a woman. For me, human beings correspond to projects and we choose them in relation to the project. When you think like that, you don’t make a difference. This is what matters to me. Today all women do extraordinary things. Men do extraordinary things, we are all together. I was chosen because I correspond to the project above all. Afterwards, it is true that as a woman, I am proud to carry a program produced by a great producer, Alexia Laroche-Joubert. There is a small girl power which is great but I didn’t mention it because that’s not how the TF1 teams work and neither do I. It’s a question of the project, not of sex.
Does this new role put extra pressure on you?
There is the “first premium of TF1” side, of course. There’s a little extra pressure to trust me and I don’t want to disappoint. Audiences, people analyze it much better than I do. I especially want people to say that I actually did my job well, that’s it. If the audiences are there, I would be the happiest. The mission is fulfilled if I am told that I have done my job well and that I have lived up to expectations. And above all, I really enjoyed doing it.
At the beginning of July, you said goodbye to your Unexpected portrait on Europe 1 but you specified that it was not a separation. Could we see it declined on television?
It’s not a separation because he’s part of me. I brought him into the world, this portrait is an idea that I proposed to Europe 1. He rests a little, he takes a little nap but he can come back at any time in a form on TV, on the radio, whatever. I have no idea how, but as long as it’s a part of me, it might just take me with it now.