The ‘not’ television failure of Marc Giró

“As an epilogue, I would like to share a reflection only with you. According to television experts, the ailments of this program that ends today have been that I repeat too much that I am left-wing, that I repeat too much that I am gay, and that it is very noticeable that I am Catalan, a three-in-one. They advise me not to say it and not to show it so much to reach a more general audience, since in this way I would not drive away all those viewers who are looking for, I don’t know, escapism, equidistance, fantasy. But of course, who do they think I am to offer the sovereign public all that? A dealer? Paz Padilla? (…) And why is this what they ask of me not asked of presenters with right-wing speeches? Well, maybe they don’t ask because they don’t openly say they are right-wing, just as they don’t have to say they are heterosexual, how convenient, right? At this point, the question I legitimately ask myself is, is all this worth it? I must consider whether to become more generalist and moderate through monologues about my mother-in-law, the gym, or dating apps, so that when they interview me, in the headline, instead of putting ‘I am left-wing and antifascist’ it says what some comedians say, ‘I just want to make people laugh.’ I’ll think about it, okay? I’ll think about it.”

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I don’t have in mind right now any entertainment presenter or any other type who is as frank, as intelligent, nor certainly as elegant, nor who masters irony with such precision, without being unpleasant, cynical, or harsh as Marc Giró. Nor who gives such great television moments as this one from Cara al show.

Let me say something upfront, so no one thinks this will be a cold, aseptic, or objective column: Marc and I have known each other since ancient times, when he was not the television star he is today, although he was a star at all social gatherings. And I love him, yes. And I can assure you that he is the same Marc Giró, this one now, as the one back then. The same one RTVE signed, the same one Buenafuente hired for his program on La Sexta, the same collaborator on Gemma Nierga’s Hoy por Hoy on Cadena SER, even the same from the forays into Espejo público. Of course, the same one La Sexta recruited to put him in charge of a late show at his level.

His season has ended and things, in terms of audience, surely did not go as the channel expected. Neither the channel nor I (I was very annoyed that it didn’t become a hit, that’s the truth), who was convinced that those of us who followed him on La 2 first, and on La 1 later, would all flock to follow him also on La Sexta and that it would undoubtedly be the most watched of the season. I was wrong, we were wrong. It ended with a 5.4% average (430,000 viewers) after 11 episodes, a low figure for the expectations, which were many, very notable, and very reasonable.

Is it a low figure? Well, in terms of the channel’s average, of course. But it is by no means a television failure. A failure is to dirty television with perverse content, with meanness, with manichaeism. A failure for the channel would be to do something different from what you promised the viewer. A failure is to assure viewers that there are UFOs, or hundreds of deaths in a parking lot in Valencia during the DANA, or to create in the collective imagination that if you go to buy bread immigrants, unaccompanied minors, will come, occupy your house, and stay forever. To give a couple of examples.

Since April, I have attended all his programs, live or recorded, with a fidelity I no longer usually have; his monologues have been the best of the television day, unparalleled, and it comforted me to see that the same sharp and frank Marc, antifascist, feminist, progressive, talkative, straightforward, was there, on TV, to give it to all the fascists, and, why not say it, to the moderate left-wing voters, who as Marc said in that final monologue, perhaps preferred something milder.

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When they hired him, those at the Atresmedia channel must have thought: he goes after El intermedio, also with its political satire, he already has a legion of fans, he arrives immersed in our bet to recover the “left-wing” spirit of La Sexta, he will have a huge promotional campaign…. Nothing can go wrong.

And what happened? Well, here I go to say why the audience was lower than expected, as if I suddenly had Giró’s courage. Considering that the program he had done for several seasons on RTVE was undoubtedly the same as on La Sexta, considering that the format, the staging, his points of view have barely changed, what I see is this. I imagine the audience that just saw El Gran Wyoming, a brave man, in a classic format, with a woman who accompanies him and who is dedicated to the serious (and Sabatés does it well, by the way); I imagine the viewer of Ferreras and his bravery too; I imagine the viewer who finds Alfonso Arús’s humor pleasant; I imagine all those friends of Pedro Sánchez, who were puzzled by “certain feminism,” and I see what they think: what’s the need for so much flamboyance, why that praise of co-official languages, having pure Spanish, enough sexual jokes, no, a little testosterone, please, so much radical feminism will bring us problems… And I see them going to any platform to watch a thriller with a missing girl whom a heartless psychopath, who had a toxic mother like in Psycho, will end up dismembering.

Has he had absolute freedom on La Sexta to do his program? Yes. Did he have more on TVE? I don’t know, the same margin, the same calm of Marc, who as he said in a thousand interviews: “They hired me to be the penguin, then they can’t ask me to make cupcakes.” Television is cruel by nature, inside and out on many occasions, and it is not usually easy or common to remain unscathed. Marc has done a whole season without changing a comma of what he offered, what the channel bought, what the viewers who already followed him expected. He has made an intelligent, fun program, with his dose of tenderness, of direct darts to open obtuse views…

His monologues are a humorous cry against stupidity, against helplessness, in favor of a very clear common sense. Some will say, well, that’s because you are an irredeemable leftist, but we could say the same, about common sense, of Iker Jiménez, or any other communicator from any other channel or even this one, who is not on your editorial line. The illustrious polarization. Well, this is where I wanted to get: indeed, yes, I am a leftist, and no, it is certainly not the same one thing as the other. It is certainly not the same to openly defend democratic values and use devastating irony as a weapon to tell, for example, that the exam that those aspiring to obtain Spanish nationality have to pass, many of those born here would not pass, and therefore dismantle that paraphernalia, than to appeal from television to the lowest instincts, to irrational fear of others, to the most primitive, to lies, to fake without scruples. I have seen it in 1,000 programs from various channels, private and public regional ones (like Telemadrid). And look, despite what is said, I never see it, with that dimension, on the Spanish public channel. We can take the risk in a comparison. And here, at this point, I prepare myself for slaps, insults, bots and their little things, come on.

La Sexta has announced that the program returns in autumn, that they intend it to be a fixed program in the schedule. The opposite would have been unfair, and I truly celebrate it. And answering Marc’s question, of course it is worth it.

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