What are the old game boxes lying around in your attic? A Monopoly where there are only a few bills left in the bank? A Thousand mile stones whose cards have been chipped over time? If you go up the stairs and dust off the shelves, you should stumble upon the new passion for the small screen: the timeless games of our childhood.
After Lego Masters, broadcast at the end of last year on M6, the channel is inspired by another activity adored by toddlers for its new show, Domino Challenge, the first number of which is offered this Thursday evening in prime time. The title could not be more explicit: six pairs of enthusiasts have for mission to create frescoes, as impressive technically as artistically, to satisfy the jury and win 20,000 euros. All with dominoes, of course.
Chance of the calendar, TF1 takes its Proust madeleine out of the oven the next day with Marble Mania. As for the private channel, we are betting on two teams of three celebrities to compete on games of skill and then of chance with a gigantic race of marbles. Have all TV producers recently become parents, or is there another explanation for the bottleneck of family programming?
Tic Tac Boom containment
What if we jumped back a little over a year? March 2020, France experiences its first confinement, schools are closed and parents are distraught. How to occupy the children without the teacher or the mistress? The answer has, in part, been to dig in the side of board games. Taken out of the closet or bought in store, they were among the saving elements of this period and saw their sales increase last year.
Always ready to surf the trends of the moment, the TV was then inspired by these family reunions around a table and a game board. Objective: to transpose these moments of happiness in the post. “Today, we are really aiming to put everyone back together, to share a positive, caring and colorful moment. The channels want to go more towards that ”, testifies Nicolas Missoffe, producer of Domino Challenge, for 20 minutes.
“Today, in homes, there are often several screens and everyone can watch their stuff. Channels are looking for these kinds of programs where parents want to watch for other reasons [que leurs enfants] but they are happy because the family is reunited, ”agrees Stéphane Rotenberg, at the helm of the show alongside Issa Doumbia. In the jargon of advertising, we say that this type of game promotes “joint listening”, namely the ability to bring children and grandparents together in front of the TV.
First Uno then two then three games transposed to TV
For Camille Combal, Marble Mania is “a bet”. According to him, this ball race launched as a bonus reflects TF1’s desire to “offer programs that can please children”. The host even started the movement somewhat with Mask Singer end of 2019. “It is clearly for children that we are doing it at the base,” he says. Now, when I take the train, the children come to see me. I didn’t have that audience at all before and I’m really happy because I see myself as a child, looking at dominoes and Intervilles “.
The channels would be wrong to deprive themselves of this return to childhood, in view of the audience scores of the first season of Lego Masters which brought together an average of 3.9 million young and old. The producer of the show of bricks, he does not take a dim view of the arrival of these new comrades in the playground of the PAF. “It’s positive that there are several shows that want to bring people together with toys,” says Julien Randrianarisoa. I think they are different disciplines and I find that although family values are being exploited at the moment on television, it is rather a good thing, ”he adds, visibly not very worried as the second season of Lego Masters is currently turning … a few meters from the studios of Domino Challenge.
If the feeling of stepping into a playground every time you turn on your TV starts to annoy you, we advise you to take your pain patiently. In the coming weeks should land, this time on C8, a modeling clay competition headed by Cyril Hanouna. Who said only Gulli was the children’s channel?