It’s the dream of every “debunked person”: to be reinstalled on one’s pedestal in the face of the shock that departure has caused.
“
The cemeteries are full of irreplaceable people
,” warned Clemenceau.
Not on television.
On December 22, 2000, a Friday, Pascal Sevran presented his latest “Chance aux mots”.
Sadness and nostalgia.
But fan letters are multiplying.
The show returned in September 2001 with a new title: “Singing Life”.
And a new schedule: Sunday lunchtime.
“
Power is a permanent conspiracy
” thought Balzac.
Pascal Sevran is on the same wavelength.
To discover
TV tonight: our selection of the day
Backtracking.
In 1981, France “
crossed the border that separates night from light
” (dixit Jack Lang).
The arrival of the socialists in power led to a tectonic shift in the PAF.
Some presenters are dismissed (Guy Lux, Danièle Gilbert), others arrive.
Close to François Mitterrand and the Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, Pascal Sevran obtained a daily appointment on TF1 in 1984 to discuss French song.
“La chance aux songs” was born - it would migrate to France 2 in 1991. While the race for audiences was simmering and the varieties were hysterical, Sevran chose calm, gentleness and eternal France.
According to the caricature, we come across singers who have disappeared from the radar screens and a few current stars sharing a duet with old fame.
The accordion is there - despite its very Giscardian side, it was not banned by the new regime.
The credits performed by Charles Trenet are a bit outdated and contribute to the old-fashioned image of the program.
True connoisseur and talent discoverer
However, behind this image, Sevran is a true connoisseur of French song, its history, its roots, its families.
He is a talent scout: Patrick Bruel, Laurent Gerra, Patricia Kaas.
Audiences are solid.
Which does not prevent him from being in danger: on several occasions, the show is in danger, but Sevran knows how to use his interpersonal skills to save his baby.
At the end of the century, the question arises of maintaining this program placed in a strategic niche for advertising (beginning of the pre-evening): but the public watching (inactive and retired) is not the darling of advertisers .
The show is canceled.
Viewers are showing up.
Sevran activates his network: Jack Lang and the left have been in power since 1997. “Singing life” is created.
Repeatedly.
Tele-hook
The show broadcast every Sunday uses all the codes of its predecessor.
Sevran takes the stage and proclaims himself the ultimate guarantor of true French song.
The comedians go wild: his mannerisms, his phrasing, his rants, his choice of singers (“Georgette l’eau du bain”).
Mistreated by comedians, the program has its faithful, delighted to listen to the songs of yesteryear - they will favor Patrick Bruel's album "Entre deux", composed of titles from the 1930s. The lyricist of the hit "He was coming from being 18” also wants to stick to fashion.
While the “Star Academy” and “New Star” triumph, he organizes an “Artist Entry” singing competition.
5000 candidates, 400 auditions, 40 selected, 14 finalists.
A winner: very quickly chosen, very quickly forgotten.
Beyond the teasing and caricatures, Pascal Sevran is a television anchor of the world before: cultivated, rooted and demanding.
“
He developed a program in his image: paradoxical and eclectic, reactionary but curious, kitsch and yet refined.
Without him, the show would have collapsed in two months.
Thanks to him, it has become a must in television memory
,” wrote Nicolas d’Estienne d’Orves so aptly in
Le Figaro
.
Not enough to survive in the PAF of the 2000s, especially when a controversy over one of his writings broke out.
The show was canceled in 2007 and replaced by a football show: Sign of the Times.
The song is no longer a priority.
He had simply forgotten that he was no longer "
twice eighteen
."