The fall promises to be rich in surprises and emotions at TVA with the return of the big guns “Revolution” and “Masked singers” on Sunday evenings, but the channel also has four new promising fictions up its sleeve, including the judicial daily ” Indefensible”.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/QMI AGENCY
Thanks to “Indefendable”, TVA wishes to impose itself in the 7 p.m. time slot, Monday to Thursday, dominated for six seasons by “District 31”. The battle promises to be tough against “Stat”, which succeeds “District 31” on ICI Télé, the starting shot for the two productions being given simultaneously on Monday, September 12.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/QMI AGENCY
“We’ve been looking for a daily fiction to put in the grid for a long time. The Quebecor Content team really found the best proposal and we always wanted to put it at 7 p.m. For us, 7 p.m. is the beginning of the evening. We put on with “The cheater”, which will still get nearly 1 million viewers, then our daily fiction “Indefendable” and “The Tower”, it’s a row that really made sense, “explained Monday the Senior Director of Channels and Programming at TVA Group, Nathalie Fabien, on the sidelines of the unveiling of TVA’s fall lineup.
“Indefendable” will take place at the courthouse and inside the walls of the Lapointe-Macdonald cabinet, where criminal lawyers defend the accused, some guilty and others not. “He is a lawyer with a lot of talent and rigor, skilled in oratorical jousting,” said Sébastien Delorme about his character, Me Léo Macdonald.
Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, who becomes Me Marie-Anne Desjardins in “Indéfendable”, believes that viewers “will discover the humanity of this ‘job’, and what is striking […]is that these are ordinary lives that can change overnight.
“Anna and Arnaud”, “My mother” and “Hotel”
Among all the new dramas, in addition to “Hôtel” (Thursdays, at 8 p.m., starting September 22) which was to be launched last January and which was postponed to September due to a lack of editors, viewers will have two other promising titles to follow.
Let’s first talk about “Anna and Arnaud” (Tuesdays, at 8 p.m., starting September 13), a series adapted from the novel “Anna and the old child” by Francine Ruel. Anna, a mother camped by Guylaine Tremblay, sees her son Arnaud (Nico Racicot) sink into drug addiction and she ends up losing contact with him when he becomes homeless.
In “My Mother” (Tuesday, 8 p.m., from November 8), Chantal Fontaine lends her features to an accountant convicted of fraud. While behind bars, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. When she leaves, she tries to put the pieces back together with her three children, played by Marilyn Castonguay, Steve Gagnon and Rachel Graton.
Of course, the series “Alerts”, “Les moments parfaits” and “L’Échappée”, for its last season, will be back in the week of September 12.
“The Tower”: Gildor and its new neighbors
Gildor Roy takes control of “La Tour”, the program where it is good to talk about a host of subjects in a good mood. Hélène Bourgeois Leclerc and Alexandre Barrette become his next door neighbors, a novelty for the third season.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/QMI AGENCY
For Sunday evenings, TVA is betting on the fourth season of “Revolution”. Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse said Monday that she is amazed each year to see that the talent in dance does not fail in Quebec. She talked about another lifted cohort.
As for “Masked singers”, we go even further in flamboyant costumes and breathtaking staging for this second season, as we could see with the extract featuring the Yéyé Elephant.
For other well-established events, let’s highlight the 35th anniversary of “Salut Bonjour”. Gino Chouinard has been at the helm of the TVA morning show for 16 seasons.
There are also, among all the anniversaries to highlight, the 30 years of “JE” – with investigations leading journalist-host Félix Séguin and his team to Colombia and Panama –, the three decades of “La poule aux golden eggs”, as well as the 25th anniversary of LCN, which went on the air on September 8, 1997. Twenty-five special programs presented by Denis Levesque will mark the news channel’s quarter century.
As for Julie Bélanger, she will start her 10th season of “It ends well the week” on September 16, at 7 p.m., this time with Jean-Michel Anctil by her side. The two accomplices will also know their baptism of co-hosting on Sunday, September 11, at 7:30 p.m., for the special “It’s back to school”.
next winter
You will have to wait until winter to watch “La Voix” with host Charles Lafortune and coaches Corneille, Marc Dupré, Marjo and Mario Pelchat, as well as the new reality show “Get me out of here!” heated by Alexandre Barrette and Jean-Philippe Dion. Dr. François Marquis, Marianne St-Gelais and Nathalie Simard are among the participants who courageously took up challenges in the middle of the jungle, with snakes and all the dangers that entails!
Jean-Philippe Dion will also return for a fifth season of “The real nature” in 2023, notably by welcoming Farah Alibay, Paul Piché and Gildor Roy to his chalet.
The second season of the comedy “Le bonheur”, even more spicy than the previous one, will also slip into the TVA schedule after the holidays, as will the sequel to the touching series “Les bracelets rouges”.
Stéphan Bureau: “it has to brew” at “World upside down”
Friday evenings will no longer be the same at TVA with the great return of Stéphan Bureau who will pilot, every week, live and for 90 minutes, a set fueling discussions and debates, that of the new program “Le monde à l’ towards”.
Contrary to what the media had reported last spring, there was never any question of placing “Le monde à l’inversion” on Sunday evening against “Everyone talks about it”.
“For us, on Friday night, we really want to own it. I think it’s a good evening for this type of show. There were all the events of the week and we settled down, ”said the senior director of Channels and programming at Groupe TVA, Nathalie Fabien.
Stéphan Bureau indicated that it “must be stirred” on his set and that in Quebec we must be able to hear the opinions of others without getting angry. “I would like us to be able to debate, to be stubborn at times, to disagree, but to do it respectfully. […]and to ensure that we reclaim this fundamental right to debate and not to agree.
“Live because we don’t want it to be polished, we don’t want all the corners to be rounded. We want to live with this risk, on tiptoe, we also want to be able to respond in real time to what is happening around the world,” said Stéphan Bureau.
The public, including some people affected by the topics discussed, will be on set to add their two cents.
Eight collaborators announced Monday will return in rotation to the “Upside Down World”, namely Yasmine Abdelfadel, Biz, Gregory Charles, Louise Deschâtelets, Sophie Durocher, Raed Hammoud, Richard Martineau and Guy Nantel.
The premiere of “The Upside Down” will take place on Friday, September 16, at 8 p.m., immediately after “It ends well the week”.
Big changes in information
Sophie Thibault has now taken the reins of TVA Nouvelles at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., and Pierre-Olivier Zappa took over at 10 p.m.
Pierre Bruneau, who left last June after 46 years at TVA, is returning for the election campaign. He hosted a special on Sunday when the elections were called. He will be back on September 15, at 8 p.m., for the traditional “Face-à-face” as well as for election night on October 3. Then he will enjoy a well-deserved retirement.
Hundreds of millions in content
Adding up the market shares of Groupe TVA’s specialty channels and the market share of its general-interest channel TVA, Quebecor accounts for 40% of the total television audience, more than any other player in the industry.
To maintain its number one position, some $400 million has been invested this year in the company’s global content, which has released 150 original productions over the past 12 months. We also plan to inject an additional $150 million in original content next year, so we don’t skimp on the means to stay at the top.