“Television is a cycle, insists Antoine Henriquet, director of Ah! Production, who produces The Villa of Broken Hearts for eight seasons. What worked five or six years ago works a little less well today and will no doubt come back in a few years. “However, there is no question for TFX of letting go of the concept, renamed The villa. For season 8, launched this Monday at 6 p.m., the production company is trying to find its new spring.
Farewell to the candidates followed by millions of followers and experts in “sequences”, these moments calculated to the mimicry because each scream or tear is part of a story that the participants want to tell about them. “People who have participated so far had a strong presence on social networks”, recognizes Antoine Henriquet. Outside the show, they were spied on by the specialized media. “They carried well-known stories and there was a lack of novelty on the air. For this new edition, reality TV is recruiting fourteen singles, unhappy in love, and 100% never seen on TV.
Lucie Mariotti, love coach of the program since its launch in 2015, confirms that the report of the fourteen new “broken hearts” to the cameras was different. “When you do something new, you’re super spontaneous, she says, because then you discover that when you’ve done it a thousand times, it’s a repetition…”
Gathered in a villa in Mexico, they try to find a way out of their sentimental problems and, if possible, love. The well-oiled mechanics are the same as before. However, the other novelty is that the show also relies on personalities with different profiles in order to evoke experiences other than those of cis people, that is to say non-trans, and heterosexual.
“Representatives of today’s reality”
“When I was contacted to participate in The villa, I said to myself that I had nothing to lose and that it was a way of showing that one can participate in a program, solve a problem and at the same time pass a message”, confides Géronimo. Métis and bisexual, he evokes his sexual orientation from the first episodes. “I always said to myself: ‘You’re not like the others,'” he confides to his comrades.
Jade, another rookie on the program, insists that the casting profiles rarely seen on TV are not necessarily “atypical”. “The goal is to normalize who we are. As a trans woman, she says she suffered from the lack of representation on the small screen. “When I started transitioning there were no transgender people in the media. I had the impression of not being normal, of being a freak, an outcast from society…” Geronimo agrees. He says that if he had seen, as a child, a program that was more representative of the diversity of sexual orientations, it would have allowed him to “ask fewer questions”. This is why he is proud to evoke his “liberated sexuality” on the screen.
Lucie Mariotti, who participated in the selection of candidates for this season, considers it essential to “give space for speech and existence to people who represent today’s reality, the society in which we live”. “Today, we offer these people not a platform because that’s not what reality TV is about, but a space to exist. It was about time, ”she rejoices.
The quest for “heterosexual approval” is over
Since its inception, reality TV has included trans or gay people (without the terms necessarily being explicitly pronounced) in its casting. We remember among others Erwan, trans candidate of the first season of Secret Story or Benoît, gay winner of the program’s fourth season. However, these personalities were often confined to the scenarios of the programs as well as in their interactions with the other candidates for the roles of “good friends and girlfriends” or “clown”.
“In the history of reality TV, including minorities, the idea was always to seek the approval of the heterosexual majority,” notes Nathalie Nadaud-Albertini, doctor of sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS ), reality TV specialist.
In season 5 of Secret Story, Morgane Enselme has a secret: “My father is called Brigitte”. Although this formulation is transphobic, the candidate intended to “send a message”, a call for tolerance. As for Erwan in season 1 or for Cindy, bisexual candidate of season 3, transidentity and sexual orientation are initially “secret”. Before being realities experienced by the participants, they are cogs in the game. The gay candidates who will then be recycled in other shows will generally be more present for the show than for their personal and sentimental stories – unlike their straight sidekicks.
Nathalie Nadaud-Albertini observed a recent turning point in the way television tackles these subjects, led by Louis in the star Academy. “In an interview [au magazine Têtu], he declined to say whether he was gay or not. This posture is original because there is no idea of seeking approval. In a way, he was saying, “I’m like that and I don’t ask you to understand me, I don’t have to justify myself.” Louis is a star academician like any other, he does what he pleases and his identity blends into the program without being a string.
Candidates with different corps failed
It is in this movement that is positioned The villa without “attempting to fill quotas”. “When we listened to Jade’s story, we said to ourselves that it stuck to the news and that it was a wealth to have this kind of profile on the show”, continues Antoine Henriquet. “We are not just gay or trans, we are full people with our problems, our personality traits and our stories and it is important that we are heard too”, insists Géronimo. The producer is proud to present a panel of candidates in the form of a “photograph of our society, in full evolution”.
However, when we observe the family photo of the new season of the TFX show, we see that the physical standards still weigh on the program. Fat people remain excluded from the displayed renewal. “There must have been people with a different physical appearance, but they were not validated by the show’s psychologist”, slips Lucie Mariotti, adding that she “would have felt less alone in [son] 44”. The production declares that it is not looking for “a type of physical profile at all costs”.
For their part, the candidates claim to have participated in a “benevolent” filming and are proud to contribute to this shift towards a better told diversity. If they are a little apprehensive about the broadcast of the program, for them, the game is worth the candle. “If no one dares to expose themselves, who will? asks Jade. If it’s so that my trans sisters and LGBT+ friends can do it afterwards thanks to me, it will be my greatest pride. »