“Honestly, I’m not going to take my train, it doesn’t matter,” says Jordan De Luxe, seated on the terrace, on this sunny June afternoon. For almost three quarters of an hour, with 20 minutes, he pours out, voluble, on his journey. Carried away by the story of this path which led him to the animation of a morning on C8, the self-taught 33-year-old tells himself with such enthusiasm that he does not hesitate to upset his schedule. . He will therefore join the Gare de Lyon later… “That’s how life is, sometimes, you shouldn’t take your head”, he slips as justification.
Since September, on the Canal+ group channel, the host presents every morning At Jordan’s where he collects the confessions of personalities like Benjamin Castaldi, Sandra Lou, Bastos (reality TV candidate seen in Secret Story Or The people of Marseille vs the rest of the world), Arielle Dombasle or Frédéric Mitterand. Some guests have distinguished themselves with brilliance during this first season. There have been a lunar sequence with Afida Turneremerging from the table in a cloud of smoke to sing his cover ofEtienne. Or the vociferations of Jean-Marie Bigard, only a few centimeters from the face with the amazed look of Jordan. “I like it when people express themselves and are natural,” he says. Let them howl and revolt if they feel like it, let them cry if they are hit. Let them forget that they are in front of a camera. »
He also appreciates confidences. These little phrases that will go around social networks and will feed the celebrity press or even the “debates” of the band of Do not touch My TV. Every morning, Jordan De Luxe takes care of sending the highlights of his show from the day before by email to a list of media as long as his arm. He assumes a taste for the sensational and does not sulk his pleasure when he is nicknamed “the midwife of the stars”.
“TV saved me”
The son of a computer scientist mother and a waste disposal worker father, Jordan De Luxe – Guisnel, his real name – grew up in a family of five children in a small town near Rennes. After college years “full of benevolence”, he suffered bullying in high school. “It went very, very far. I was told in particular that I was pathetic. At one point you are so fed up that you want to leave…”, he recalls. It was during this period that he took refuge in front of the TV. “It became my passion, that’s what saved me. I watched interviews with Mireille Dumas. I was like crazy waiting for Jean-Marc Morandini in the evening on Direct 8 [l’ancêtre de C8]. There was also this show that I loved with Marc-Olivier Fogiel or Ardisson, his very punchy interviews where he asked forbidden questions. “Jordan passes without much conviction an STG baccalaureate (sciences and technologies of management) and works some time in the sale of household appliances.
His fate changed on a “poker shot”. That day, in his show on Europe 1, Laurent Baffie offered listeners the chance to win a smartphone. The twenty-something calls, participates, but he fails to win the challenge. It only remains for him to play all for all. “Either I win the phone, or I come to the radio to do a chronicle,” he says. Laurent Baffie accepts and offers him a few minutes of airtime the following week. Jordan reads a “little love letter for Julie Leclerc”. “After the show, he said to me: ‘It was really bad what you did. I answer him “it does not matter my Lolo, I am so happy to have made your show, for me it was a dream”. He takes me in his arms and he says to me “I’m kidding, it was very good and I think you have something to do”. Guest of this same show, Geneviève de Fontenay suggests that Jordan become her “TV godmother”.
“It will always remain on the menu, it is not expensive and very popular”
In the early 2010s, the young man landed an internship at NRJ12 then worked for an anniversary program of Intervilles. He gleans here and there the contacts of celebrities from the small screen and builds up a nice address book. From meeting to meeting, he finds himself at Voltage where he becomes a “voltageman” in the morning before making pranks. He then pilots several shows and stays there for eight years. “He brought a certain originality. By his presence and his way of doing things on the air, he showed that we could break the format, “recalls Jean-Eric Valli, president of the Les Indés Radio group, who was at the head of the station at the era.
It was also during this period that he adopted his pseudonym, taking inspiration from the name of a burger from a famous fast food chain. “One evening a waitress offered me her menus and sold me one in particular, as if we were at Guy Martin’s: “It’s our best-seller, it’s unique, it will always be on the menu, it’s not cheap and very popular”. Jordan De Luxe was born.
After eight years on the radio, he was entrusted with a program by Jean-Marc Morandini on Non Stop People. He then joins TV StarThen Entertainment TV in 2022. He hosts his online show there, At Jordan’s, where he receives personalities. This is where Cyril Hanouna comes in. The host and producer of TPMP calls him on a Sunday morning during the summer holidays and offers him to present his own show on C8 at the start of the school year. “That day I got into real TV,” he says. This call from Cyril is today the most beautiful moment of my life”.
“When we go to Jordan, we know where we are going”
On C8, he welcomes his guests face to face, each time dressed in a suit and a bow tie. “It’s a matter of respecting elders. For me, TV is an event,” he says. A little oldschool Jordan Deluxe? “Totally. A little kitsch too, ”he assumes. On his set, his guests lend themselves to the game of questions and answers and openly open up about their intimate lives. Like Guillaume Durand, who confides in his jaw cancer. Or Laurence Boccolini, who explains the reasons for his weight loss. “On C8 there is something more that is emerging, very emotional, rather sincere. It’s not the classic interview of people who say ready-made phrases because they have an image to preserve. He is still young and it is difficult to get that from personalities who are very seasoned. They feel comfortable with him,” observes the boss of Voltage.
Jordan De Luxe has also made its reputation by asking the angry questions. Illness, breakups, clashes, cosmetic surgery, deceptions… Everything goes. “I tell myself that if my mother asks herself these questions in the depths of Brittany, it’s because everyone asks them! “, he explains. Last May, the lawyer Sarah Saldmann left the set exasperated, refusing to answer a question about her salary.
The objective of these itchy interviews? “Getting things out that aren’t elsewhere,” he says. “There are no bad intentions, however, says the interviewer. The trap is the answer, not the question. The guest is in control at all times. »
“There is no desire to harm behind it, it is rather the desire to get them out of their comfort zone and to offer people who know them another facet,” he adds.
For Max Guazzini, former president of the French stadium and NRJ, who meets him regularly, Jordan De Luxe has a “direct” way of asking his questions. “It’s his talent,” he judges. And to add: “He is not a villain. When we go to Jordan, we know where we are going. We are going to do a program that is a little offbeat and different from the others with questions that can be a bit scratchy. If it’s empty, nobody’s interested, you always need a little roughness”.
“The day I tell myself that it’s normal, I will stop all that”
On the set of At Jordan’s, we go from laughter to tears in a snap of the fingers and from seriousness to lightness in a fraction of a second. With sometimes this feeling of attending a play, absurd or boulevard. “I am sometimes told that I do too much when I receive my guests. But when I receive Catherine Lara and my eyes shine because I’m moved, I’m sincere! I will never feel legitimate for this job. I always feel like that little boy in front of his television. The day I tell myself that it’s normal to interview them because I’ve become a great interviewer, I’ll stop all that. »
At Jordan’s has been postponed for the fall. For the second season, he dreams of inviting Brigitte Macron. “We talk to each other,” he says. Jordan De Luxe is also working on the project of a new weekly show for C8. A format “which should make people talk”, with “surprising” and “sulphurous” guests. And no doubt the bow tie at the presentation.