Last night were the annual Gémeaux awards.

You may recall last year’s post explaining what they are: “And the winners are…“

They’re basically the television awards for French television.  Technically speaking, they’re not specifically restricted to Québec television (programs from networks outside of Québec, such as Toronto’s “UNIS” are also in the running), and they are sponsored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since 1985.

But owing to the vast majority of Canada’s French-language programming being produced and aired in Montréal (refer to post “Montréawood television”), the Gémeaux awards are by practical default the Québec television awards.

One thing which I learned from this year’s awards is that the TVA version of La Voix (The Voice) has the world’s highest per-capital viewership of any of the 56 countries which produce versions of the program.

This year was the 30th awards ceremony, and there were changes.

Julie Snyder (who produces for TVA) and Fabienne Larouche (who produces for Radio-Canada) are two of the major television producers whose programs constitute a large portion of French-produced television.  Yet 10 years ago, they began a boycott of the awards owing to how they objected how the Academy’s votes were awarded.

Last night was their first night returning to the ceremonies after the académie decided to revamp what criteria they take into consideration to decide how a program or person wins awards.

Other “improbable personalities” (owing to past public spats or rumored disagreements) also appeared together under one roof (the Morrissettes [Véronique and Louis] cooperating with PKP/Snyder, Véronique Cloutier ho-hosting with Éric Salvail, etc).

Therefore the night was dubbed the “Night of large reconciliations”.

Here is a video embedded in a Rad-Can news report on the “reconcilation”

If you want to watch the opening act of the awards, you can view the last video at the bottom in the following Rad-Can news report: