In-house kitchen nightmare. Within the M6 group, Mediapart’s revelations on Stéphane Plaza, took everyone by surprise. In the corridors, the publication of an investigation into its flagship host accused of physical and psychological violence by several former companions had started to circulate two or three days ago. The article was posted online Thursday afternoon and, in the process, the real estate agent turned cathodic star had to explain himself during an interview which took place by telephone.
According to information collected by 20 minutes, an internal investigation into the conduct of the host in the professional context (the facts with which he is accused allegedly took place in the private context) was opened. Shortly after 9 p.m., the group said in a press release that it was “attached to the values of respect for people and guarantor of its code of ethics and professional conduct” and added “ [prendre] act of Stéphane Plaza’s formal contestation of the facts with which he is accused and of the legal challenges he has initiated. The host, through his lawyer, described these accusations to Mediapart as “fanciful”.
“It happened that several women came to see him in his dressing room at the same time”
The message, laconic, and seeming to spare the goat and the cabbage, reflects the embarrassment in which the audiovisual group finds itself this Friday. Stéphane Plaza is one of the figures on his antenna but the gondola head is swaying. On 6play, this Friday you have to rummage around to see the face of the person who generally appears on the home page with his “House or apartment search”, “Apartment hunters” and other “House for sale”. Likewise, it was impossible for us to find, on the M6 image bank reserved for the media, a photo of the host.
On the RTL side, there is also amazement. “Since the start of the school year, Stéphane has not returned to Big heads, perhaps it is because he knew that the Mediapart investigation was going to come out, we are told off-screen. He is probably not about to return to the show, where the personalities are self-deprecating or make jokes about their lives. Not because Laurent Ruquier would have decided so, he is not the type to let people go, but because Stéphane will not want to expose himself. »
“I was very surprised by what I read,” says a source on the M6 side. We knew it was hot but that’s not against the law. We knew that he had multiple relationships which sometimes posed problems: when he played in the theater, it happened that several women came to see him in his dressing room at the same time. »
A documentary with his father
We do not know whether this situation occurred on June 20, after the performance ofA magical couple. Still, the piece carried by Stéphane Plaza, Valérie Mairesse and Jeanfi Janssens, broadcast that evening on M6, did not attract the crowds. The channel finished at the foot of the podium with only 1.56 million viewers for an audience share (pda) of 9.2%.
Stéphane Plaza’s new show, “New house for a new life”, broadcast in access prime time between May 15 and July 7 obtained disappointing scores, attracting 907,000 viewers on average (7.3% share), according to calculations by our colleagues at PureMedias. For comparison, scheduled on the same slot from January to May, “The Best Bakery” managed to attract 1.46 million viewers (9.5% audience share).
On Tuesday, TV journalists received a press release from M6 in their mailboxes announcing the upcoming programming of “En voyage avec mon père”. This documentary, for which Stéphane Plaza went to Martinique with his 90-year-old dad, is due to be broadcast on October 10, at 10:25 p.m., just after an issue of “Research house…” A 100% Plaza evening which, at a time when we write these lines, is not called into question.