Having expertise in adventure reality shows pays off in 2023. Director Guillaume St-Arnaud knows this. On Sunday, his shows in quick succession captured the airwaves of the TVA and Noovo networks at prime time: Sortez-moi d’ici and Survivor Québec.
In an interview, Guillaume St-Arnaud showed a certain reluctance to comment on this feat. And yet, one should only detect a sense of pride. After all, it’s not every day that you produce two flagship shows from competing media empires, housed on the same evening.
“I’m super happy,” said the 42-year-old. I am especially happy that we have the opportunity to produce this kind of shows in Quebec. Broadcasters believe in it. And people are interested in it. »
No need to dig far to understand why the services of Guillaume St-Arnaud are so popular.
In the hands of another director, the timed challenge combining snakes, electric vines and cardboard boxes taken up by Rahmane, Dr. Marquis, Jean-Michel and Nathalie Simard probably wouldn’t have grabbed our attention so much on Sunday evening at Sortez get me out of here.
For its part, the premiere of Survivor Quebec threw some with its enormous game structures, its furious rhythm and, above all, its unstoppable shots of the Philippine islands.
“Because of Quebec budgets, at the beginning, my great fear was that we would suffer from comparisons with American adaptation,” explains Guillaume St-Arnaud.
Host Patrice Bélanger said it during the Sunday show: for each participant, Survivor is the experience of a lifetime. For its director too, specifies Guillaume St-Arnaud, who knows the series since it took the antenna of CBS, in the spring of 2000. At that time, he was studying communications at Concordia University in Montreal. “My English-speaking friends had introduced me to this. I was curious, but I didn’t follow. »
It was not until 2014, when he was preparing to shoot the first season of Vol 920 for TVA, that he immersed himself in it more. Led by Yan England, this defunct reality show combined travels around the world and meetings between singles.
“You had to invent challenges, and to inspire me, I had listened to over 200 Survivor clips on YouTube. It allowed me to see the extent of the phenomenon, the fan community, the cult… I’ve done a lot of competitive reality shows, but for me, Survivor is the ultimate. »
Bringing Survivor Quebec into the world required more than a year and a half of hard work. For Guillaume St-Arnaud, work began in January 2022 with Productions J, the company of Julie Snyder. After extensive preparation in advance, which included recruiting quality competitors capable of playing “by the book” without going overboard, the small army was transported to the Philippines in February for 45 days of filming.
“It went smoothly all the way. The local teams were good, the places worked, the challenges worked… I never felt that we weren’t going to be able to deliver something up to par. »
Guillaume St-Arnaud did not always want to occupy the director’s chair. Initially, he rather wanted to become a director of photography. He had discovered a “love of the image” by taking black and white pictures during a trip to Russia. After his studies, tempting offers in various reality shows like Loft Story and Occupation double came to confuse his cards.
Guillaume St-Arnaud doesn’t know why the Survivor and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here formats, which have existed for 26 years and 21 years respectively internationally, took so long to to land in Quebec. However, he believes that we would have broken our teeth if we had had to tackle it sooner.
“We are starting to develop expertise in Quebec in the area of ​​reality TV. It allows us to have these kinds of shows with our budgets. This was less the case 10 or 15 years ago. »
The context also seems favorable in 2023. If we are to believe the ratings of Sortez-moi d’ici, Quebecers are more than ever thirsty for adventure reality shows. Since it went on the air in February, the program piloted by Jean-Philippe Dion and Alexandre Barrette has rallied an average of 1,709,000 fans every Sunday, according to confirmed data from Numéris.
In some ways, these results surprise Guillaume St-Arnaud. “For me, it was a gamble,” admits the director. But today, I see how wide it rakes. Before Get Me Out Of Here, I had never watched TV with my 5-year-old. He loves the show! It must be said that she has a touch of humor, a cartoonish touch. We also see people who are going through something hard, but who remain united. It must resonate with many families. The good mood, the fear of bugs, the positive aspect… It’s general public. »
TVA having recently announced the return of Sortez-moi d’ici, Guillaume St-Arnaud will return to it full-time in June, as soon as the editing of the Survivor Québec episodes is completed, including 30-minute daily and weekly Sunday shows.
The warrior’s rest will have to wait.
“I love what I do, especially since I’ve always loved to travel. I started very young, going to Nicaragua at 16. The challenge now is that with two young children, it is more difficult. But I’m lucky; I have a very understanding blonde. »