It has become one of the privileged passages of part of the political class. In his show Do not touch My TV (TPMP), Cyril Hanouna regularly invites elected officials to discuss social issues or media buzz. But the daily show of C8, which brings together up to two million viewers, is regularly accompanied by controversy.
Last Thursday, the exchanges between the host and the rebellious deputy Louis Boyard, former columnist of the show, thus degenerated into insults, then into legal complaints. Despite the controversies, politicians continue to rush to the “Baba” set. We asked them to tell us why.
“There is no sub-public”
The deputies questioned are unanimous: they go to TPMP to reach a wide audience, not necessarily interested in politics. “You have to talk to everyone. There is no sub-show, no sub-audience. We cannot pretend to speak to young people or the working classes and refuse to go into the media spheres they rub shoulders with, ”defends Maud Bregeon, deputy for Hauts-de-Seine. The spokesperson for the Renaissance group has repeatedly accepted invitations from C8, to talk about Covid-19 or the dissolution of Génération identitaire.
“I noticed that after my passages in TPMP, in the markets of northern Yonne, the people who came to talk to me about the show were not those who usually watch news channels or classic debates ”, abounds the deputy RN Julien Odoul. “Before, he was just entertaining. But Hanouna has taken on another dimension in recent years by talking about social issues, bringing people who were not interested in politics into politics, ”he adds. An Ifop poll had shown, in June 2021, that Cyril Hanouna reached via his talk show a rather young audience (under 35), mainly workers, employees, craftsmen, traders, housewives or inactive.
“It’s a bit like the jungle”
But go in TPMP, it also means accepting the omnipresence of Cyril Hanouna as master of the game, the possibility of being interrupted by a joke from Jean-Marie Bigard, or that of suffering the wrath of one of the columnists – not always seasoned – around Table. All in a limited time. “We always hesitate to go there, because it is a program that breaks the codes. I understand that it’s complicated, it’s a talk show, not the place of half measures, where deep reasoning has no place. But you have to go there, ”assures Pierre-Henri Dumont. The deputy Les Républicains du Pas-de-Calais notably came to talk about the boycott of the Assembly football team by LFI, of which he is captain, or this Monday on the Louis Boyard affair. “It does not prepare like a BFM or a CNews. There, the timing is different, it’s a bit of a jungle. You have to cut the floor to be heard, to capture attention, to be audible for a few seconds,” he adds.
“There is a show side that can impress, and with which you have to be at least comfortable. But you have to go there by being yourself, without playing a role, leaving the elements of language and the great convolutions in the locker room, ”assures Maud Bregeon. Antoine Léaument, LFI deputy for Essonne, was there recently to criticize the “over-media coverage” of the death of Elizabeth II. “I had criticized the treatment of TPMP on Twitter and I was invited. When I spoke, one of the columnists got aggressive by getting up in his chair. It’s like an arena, I was alone against eight, it was more a fight than a debate, he says. Any position can be quickly caricatured, the arguments not always substantive. It’s hard to be heard in the hubbub, but that’s the idea of the show. And it’s useful, because it allows you to put forward one or two ideas to people who don’t necessarily want to hear what you say.
“We devalue politics when we seek buzz”
And the criticisms on the lowering of the public debate? Swept away. The latest controversies will not prevent them from returning to the set. “We are right to go there when we deliver a message, but we devalue the role of politics when we go to this type of program to seek buzz, for personal notoriety,” says Maud Bregeon, who says she has already refused. certain program topics. Julien Odoul defends the show’s freedom of speech. “Those who make this reproach to Hanouna do not do it to Daily [l’émission de TMC]. They follow us everywhere and make dishonest montages with bits of sentences. This subsides the public debate much more, ”criticizes the elected RN.
Pierre-Henri Dumont sets himself a few rules: “You have to keep a distance, avoid familiarity with the host and overplay the marks of seriousness – the suit and tie, the formal address”. The elected official thus assumes that he is the only right-wing deputy to accept Cyril Hanouna’s invitations. “It’s another world, but it’s a world that exists. Those who hold their noses will then complain of not being known by anyone, or of not reaching young people. Our congress to elect the president of the party will have 91,000 members… Which LR can say today that he will speak to 2 million people? »