MONTREAL – Quebec’s TV industry kicked off the new fall season Sunday by honouring its top shows and best performers from the past year, during the prime time awards show, le Gala des Gémeaux, the equivalent of the English-language Geminis.
Among the big winners was Radio-Canada’s Sunday evening talk show Tout le monde en parle (“Everybody’s talking about it”), whose big coup last season was contributing to the fall of Guy Fournier as chairman of CBC-Radio Canada.
Fournier resigned as chair after a particularly embarrassing performance on the show when he was called upon to explain some earlier bizarre and controversial musings made on radio and in print about the joys of defecating, and how Lebanese law supposedly regards bestiality. He had also raised eyebrows by saying Radio-Canada wasn’t doing enough to promote national unity.
Fournier, an award-winning film producer, scriptwriter, journalist, and author, had hoped his appearance would set the record straight. It had the opposite effect and after a two-day media furore, he handed in his resignation.
On the other hand, his appearance helped kick-start the show’s 2006 season and solidified its reputation as Quebec’s must-see TV show.
An appearance on the two-hour show, which regularly draws 1.7 million viewers, has become mandatory for political figures, despite the risk of embarrassment at the hands of sharp-tongued host Guy A. Lepage or his comedic sidekick Dany Turcotte. Its first show of the new season airs Sunday evening.
The show won the award for best variety series while Lepage took home the trophy for best host, as well as le Prix du Public, chosen by viewers.
Lepage also shared Gémeaux with his partners in the comedy troupe Rock et Belles Oreilles, which won several prizes for their New Year’s Eve comedy review, Bye-Bye de 2006.
The Quebec section of the Association of Canadian Cinema and Television honoured comic actor, playwright, and producer Gilles Latulippe with a lifetime achievement award.
Latulippe, a popular figure for almost 50 years on Quebec stage and TV, has appeared in about 3,000 TV shows, written 35 plays, and authored hundreds of comedic sketches. He was named to the Order of Canada in 2003 and was inducted into the international Humour Hall of Fame in 1995.
He’s currently working on a TV series for this winter, “Latulippe et compagnie”, about Quebec’s history with vaudeville and burlesque theatre.
Among the big winners in Quebec prime-time were Radio-Canada’s drama Minuit, le Soir, centred around the lives and relationships of three bar doormen who open the forbidden door to the big city after dark. It won the award for Best Drama and six other prizes.
TVA’s Annie et ses Hommes, a lighter, soap opera-like drama revolving around the obsessions and ambitions of a 40-something woman and the men in her life, was named Best Téléroman.
Glenn Wanamaker is Cartt.ca’s Quebec editor.
