While we waited for the show to begin, the JT (journal télévisé) de Canal+ played on screens around us. About 10 minutes before the show would begin being broadcast, the show’s host, Michel Denisot, walked out to his seat at the head of the table, facing the teleprompter, flanked by the two rows of seats reserved for the regular presenters of the Grand Journal and the show’s special guests.
As the make-up and hair people touched up Denisot’s look with some powder and a few spritzes of hairspray, Ariane Massenet and Ali Badou entered the stage to take their seats right in front of us ! As they underwent their final hair and make-up touchups, a bespectacled forty-something man briefed us on how to react and control our movements during the show. Certain moments would require strong, vigorous applause. For other moments, like when a well-appreciated cast member (like Yann Barthès or Charlotte Le Bon) entered, applause should be accompanied by shouts, whoops, whistles and other noises, within reason, that would highlight the personality’s sex appeal. We were also informed that we should refrain from extraneous movements (including the obvious less hygenic or embarrassing sorts of gestures or reflexes) at least until the commercial breaks or in between the two parts of the show.
Well-informed and at least partially trained, we heard a woman shout « 30 seconds » ! At the end of that delay began the familiar opening music of the Grand Journal, signaling our cue to produce spirited applause. As the first half of the show is more devoted to serious matter such as news and politics, whistles and shouting would have been deemed inappropriate.
The guests in the first part were Eva Joly, a candidate from the French Green Party for the presidential primaries. The other guest was a novelist who wrote a story called Ticket d’Entrée about politics and journalism and the desire for power with a sort of Illusions Perdues ending. (He did not hesitate to evoke another Balzac title, Splendeurs et Misères des courtisans while also claiming that fiction is the only truth, an idea to which my literary side totally subscribes.)
Being present for the live transmission of the show made me aware of how much the program really feels like an average conversation between a small group of people. When you are physically present in the room, it doesn’t feel like you are on TV. For once, you actually get to be that proverbial « fly on the wall » for a dinner conversation that doesn’t involve you at all. The only difference being that there are hundreds of thousands of other flies watching through their own screens at home. However, the way the sound is enhanced through the TV makes the setting much less intimate than in person.
Finally, in the second half which is devoted to music, cinema, culture and commentary, the show’s guests were Mathieu Kassovitz, who has directed and starred in several films such as La Haine and who was on the show to promote an animated movie called The Prodigies in which he lends his voice to a character in the French dubbed version. There were also two less well-known groups of female singers, Brigitte (which is actually a group of two women) and Les Chanteuses (also a group of two women). During Le Petit Journal, Yann Barthès was surprising for his size – he is very petit ! As for Les Guignols and Service après-vente des émissions with Omar and Fred, we watched these segments on the screens just like people at home. Apparently Omar and Fred are too busy to come into the studio for their short 3 minute segment.
When the show was over, we passed back through the same way we came in to pick up our bags, electronics (no cameras or phones were allowed) and coats at the coat check, and our IDs from the jolly man at the door who jokingly asked where I had obtained my carte d’identité. He probably doesn’t see too many Florida driver’s licenses.
Le Grand Journal from June 7, 2011
I only appear briefly in certain large pans of the room. Like I mentioned, I'm in the middle row to the left of the main presenter. I'm wearing a navy blue dress with a colorful tie around the middle. My hair is down, and I'm the third person from the end, closest to large screen. If you spot the slighly large guy with a bald head, but long hair, my friend is sitting next to him and I'm next to her. The best chances to see me (briefly!) is at 7 min and 15 seconds in "Partie 1" and 15:44 in "Partie 2". Hit pause. There is a guy raising is hand in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen (he's directing the applause!) I'm in front of him to the right by two people.
