The answer will sound cliche and obvious, but here it is anyway: old people. The old ones to be exact.
Posted at 6:00 am
And by aged and aged I’m referring to viewers who have passed the ‘venerable’ mark of 54, a gray clientele that advertisers no longer care about. Unfortunately, after 54 years you are no longer worth anything in the eyes of the sellers of SUVs, spas or RRSPs, whose advertising finances a large part of the programming of private stations.
TV only drives the 25-54 year olds, it’s also shallow and cruel. Hostess Marie-Claude Barrette, who celebrated her 54th birthday in January, asks some fair and relevant questions about the fate the small screen holds in store for its consumers over 54, far from being bedridden, shall we say -THE .
Obsessed with attracting and retaining Generations Y and Z, mainstream Quebec television takes for granted the hard core that carries it, namely young retirees, boomers and even fifties. Why seduce her? You remain loyal to the station, no matter what it is broadcasting.
When she joined Two Girls in the Morning of TVA in September 2009 at the age of 40, Marie-Claude Barrette found herself right at the center of the audience that advertisers so coveted.
“People who were 40 when I started are 54 today. The clientele is aging but not renewing. In the morning there are fewer, 25 to 54 year olds, many have returned to the office after the pandemic. We’re going to have to rethink the advertising system that only swears by 25-54 year olds. People are living longer, are fitter and better off financially. You can’t buy a Tesla at 25,” Marie-Claude Barrette remarked in an interview.
The moderator of the magazine Marie-Claude at TVA, whose contract was not renewed until autumn 2023, is not wrong.
According to Isabelle Fournier, Director, Lead Activation, at Cossette Media, people aged 55 and over make up 80% of morning TV audiences. “In fact, specialty channels are better tuned than traditional channels during the morning block,” adds Ms. Fournier.
Sophie Labarre, Head of Client Relations at the agency dentsu X, paints the same picture: Morning television primarily appeals to older women. At the second coffee there are simply no young people in front of their screens. And with an average rating of 202,000 viewers, Marie-Claude gained a market share of 27%, which is still impressive after 14 years on the air.
“The over-54s are worth just as much as other target groups. We talk about being more and more inclusive with cultural communities or with different bodies, but we are not inclusive in terms of the age of the audience we are targeting,” notes Marie-Claude Barrette.
Daytime television also serves a pool of more vulnerable and isolated people for whom this program becomes a life companion of sorts. “You have to remember the importance of television. There are more and more lonely people and often you are the only person who talks to them all day. I grew up watching TV, I come from a family where TV was important. Today, with pay-per-view television, YouTube and social networks, things are changing,” stresses Marie-Claude Barrette.
The latest episode of the daily magazine Marie-Claude airs on Wednesday, April 12 at 10 a.m. He has 24 shows to record before then, which is a third of his regular season.
“I will do them with happiness and pleasure. It’s the end of a cycle in my life. I always have the lights on to find subjects, there are so many things that turn me on. I watch The Emperor at Noovo and tell myself it’s love with a capital A of 2023,” says Marie-Claude Barrette.
In the US, starting on the fourth hour of the Today Show, 9 or 10 a.m. hits will take over the airwaves, including Kelly Ripa, Ryan Seacrest, Drew Barrymore, Rachael Ray, Sherri Shepherd, and Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. With us, the morning slit is slowly dying.
Noovo gave it up – MCBG and C’est extra in V’s time, anyone? – and now plays movies. Télé-Québec dedicates its morning to young children. Since the end of Marina Orsini’s daily show in 2019, Radio-Canada has broadcast the cover of On va se le dire by Sébastien Diaz vs. Marie-Claude on TVA.
And before Marina, Radio-Canada tested a variety of concepts with little success, including So we jase! by Élyse Marquis and Joël Legendre, Big day by Annie Broccoli, Ma vie en main by Mario Langlois, Right in the heart of France Castel and 37.5 by Danielle Perreault.
“Radio-Canada threw in the towel after Marina Orsini. TVA held the fort for a long time. I congratulate them for that. There are people at TVA who believed in me, there are people who saw things in me that I didn’t see,” recalls Marie-Claude Barrette, who founded her own production company Humano with Richard Speer’s Attraction group .
“I can produce shows that I’m not going to be on. Being in the spotlight is not as important as doing useful work,” recalls Marie-Claude Barrette, who may be the last of the Mohicans to sip her Keurig with us at 10 a.m.
Despite the unconditional support of the “elders”, the morning television stops.