“Prodigies” celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. For the occasion, France 2 will offer three prime times, the first of which will be broadcast this Thursday at 9:10 p.m. Twenty-four children will compete, twelve per semi-final, and the four most popular in each category (singing, dancing, music) will find themselves in the final.
In ten years, this artistic competition has established itself in the television landscape. Video tapes “full of emotion”, says host Faustine Bollaert, will allow you to delve back into the archives and revive memories. “It’s the meeting place for the French, for young audiences,” says Alexandra Redde-Amiel, director of entertainment and games at France Télévisions. It is important for us as a talent incubator, as we also do with Junior Eurovision, to give a voice to our young people. This is one of our missions. »
Certain talents, like the violinist Camille Berthollet, winner of the first season at the age of 15, continue a brilliant career. Initially, the objective of the show was elsewhere.
“When we proposed the project to France Télévisions, we had a credo: how to dramatize culture for young people and make them listen to classical music? », recalls Michel Eli, the designer of the show.
“We enter people’s houses”
And it worked. “We are happy: it is a French creation which is progressing over time and which works very well with, each season, audiences of between 3.5 and 4 million people and a 20% audience share”, underlines Nicolas Missoffe, producer at Endemol.
“We enter people’s homes and that allows us to tell them: this is what we do, this is how it makes us happy,” says soprano Julie Fuchs, member of the jury, convinced that “Prodiges” helps to sweep away prejudices. on the classic.
“The television vector remains powerful. This show allowed lots of children to discover the practice of singing and dancing and to understand that classical music is not old-fashioned, that it touches everyone, that we don’t need to a specific musical education to appreciate or practice it”, supports cellist Gautier Capuçon, juror since season 1.
“We are smugglers,” says dancer Marie-Claude Pietragalla, who completes the jury trio, “it is important, through this show, to work for transmission.” A mission that this season 10 will continue to accomplish.