Since the creation of The Evening Team in September 2008, Olivier Ménard lugged his Angevin phlegm in the midst of much more agitated columnists. This Monday, the daily talk show of the L’Equipe channel celebrates its 3,000th edition and, at 13 and a half years old, displays the form of a supercharged teenager: 275,000 viewers on average over the year 2021 (a record), with a peak at 903,000 on June 21, at the heart of the Euro football match.
At 52, the journalist and host does not see himself stopping anytime soon: “My columnists are fine, they have brought me a lot intellectually and humanly. If you take stock, you say to yourself: it’s still really good. »
How do you feel seeing the show you pitched and launched celebrating its 3000th issue?
I did not see the time pass. It’s a program that I created with Benoît Pensivy, the boss at the time. At the time of creation, you imagine nothing. You just wonder if it will work. From the first broadcast, I had the feeling that the child was well born. I wanted to have people who express themselves well, who give their view on current events, with culture, originality and sensitivity.
[J-4] Don’t miss, on Monday 21 February, a special evening for the 3000th of @lequipedusoir 🎂 and a documentary by @starragolequipe and Jules Bian-Rosa
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At first, the channel was broadcast on cable and satellite. 2012 is an important date with the transition to DTT, but the channel was not yet received in all French municipalities. The show originated in 2008 but the time it started to potentially hit the ground running was in 2016-2017. She’s a fake old woman, or a young old woman.
This special program promises to unveil “the little secrets of The Evening Team “. That is to say ?
These are the behind the scenes things that viewers will learn. The small enmities or the big annoyances. But there are also testimonials from well-known viewers, such as Nicolas Sarkozy, Michel Drucker, Michaël Youn and Michel Denisot. I find that the documentary is rather nice and resembles us with a lot of ego, temperament, moments when it “fights”, others when it is reconciled. Sometimes it’s irreconcilable. Life, what.
What are the highlights that you remember?
I have a capacity for immediate forgetting, because I am always focused on the next show. This is the essence of the daily rhythm. I still remember the evening of the comeback (FC Barcelona – PSG, 6-1 on March 8, 2017). We come with questions but there is Sergi Roberto’s last goal which makes them obsolete. For twenty minutes, we did the editorial conference live without the viewers realizing it. I was talking to the control room while hosting the show.
Sergi Roberto, hero of Barça’s comeback against PSG, March 8, 2017. – Emilio Morenatti / AP / Sipa
I also remember that during the Vendée Globe, we were lucky to receive sailors on the set or in duplex. Their adventures made us touch the essence of sport: people who do extraordinary things. You’re alone on your boat, you’re crossing the ocean and you may have trouble.
We are only sports columnists and the people we talk about are generally out of the ordinary. And then, among the sailors, there is victory but also the idea of finishing an event. Because usually, we are in a culture of success, even if you lose more than you gain in sport. All of a sudden, there was something quite wholesome about hearing their speeches. It marked me a lot.
Who is the best columnist The Evening Team ?
My answer will be shared by many other columnists. This is Gregory Schneider [journaliste à Libération]. He has very original views, but there’s something about his personality that makes you happy to disagree with him.
And the worst ?
I’m not going to give a name out of elegance. It is sometimes necessary to operate a renewal, and then there are people who do not do the job and I tell them kindly. For some who have stayed a little longer, making this announcement to them is like depriving someone of a recess. There is a band emission side. People are not necessarily going to spend their holidays together but for an evening, they are going to share a moment and it is very pleasant.
Raymond Domenech and Dominique Séverac never appear on the same show. Are there other cases of mood incompatibilities to manage?
Yes, a few. And then there are columnists who have the same job, like Dominique Séverac and Bernard Lions. There is no enmity between them, but they are both people who will interrupt others, question them, make their way of thinking a little ridiculous. Having a double effect, it cancels the power of their character, like in the theater.
Raymond Domenech wants to sit in front of Nicolas Mahut, but not next to journalist Dominique Séverac. – Lionel Urman / Sipa
It’s the same when you put too many football scholars. One day, I had a set of five people with Vincent Duluc, Didier Roustan and Sébastien Tarrago. Everyone knows this sport perfectly. It was too much. You have to have complementary people, perhaps a little opposed. If they have the same function, the speech circuit is a bit jammed.
Is there a phrase that has become cult, which often comes up on the show?
I have a little nostalgia for the reflections of Thierry Brittany, a columnist who had a fantastic vocabulary and oral expression. We had nicknamed him the lawyer because he left in magnificent pleadings. I also remember Eric Blanc’s expression: “you make France laugh”, which means “your words are ridiculous”.
Among the guests, are there any that particularly marked you?
The Vendée Globe champions and, in a completely different discipline, Samir Nasri. At the time, he was playing at Sevilla FC, on loan from Manchester City (during the 2016-2017 season). He had explained to us Pep Guardiola whom he had met at City, his intransigence. He had really opened the doors of the locker room to us through his testimony.
Samir Nasri Manchester City period with Pep Guardiola, August 28, 2016. – Oli Scarff / AFP
Guardiola was even interested in how frequently his players had sex. But he was not there to give a moral lesson. He said, “You had sex on Thursday, we played on Saturday and you weren’t that good. Could you, possibly, avoid having this sexual intercourse two days before the game and schedule it the day before, or the day before the day before? »
There, we touch on the obsessive side of people who play high-level sport, through an example that seems crazy and original. In addition, Samir expresses himself beautifully. You discover things live on The Evening Teamwe are interested, so it must be of interest to the person watching TV.
Which guest would you like to welcome on set?
I would like a special program with Roger Federer, because he is a star of worldsport and he is French-speaking. It’s a myth, like Tyson, Fangio or Senna. As he speaks French, we will be able to understand each other without a translator and he will be able to make little jokes. There will certainly be a more natural connection than with other current sports legends like Messi, Ronaldo, LeBron James, Curry, Pacquiao or Bolt.
