Image from the HBO series Chernobyl – HBO
Critical and public success, this miniseries won more than 90 awards, and the title of best series 2019 from the editorial staff of 20 minutes. 35 years after the biggest nuclear disaster in history, the HBO series, Chernobyl, is entitled this Thursday to its first broadcast on a free channel, on M6. Christine Bouillet, M6 programming director, explains to 20 minutes why the terrestrial channel decided to broadcast this event series.
What made you want to program “Chernobyl” on M6?
First, our wonder at his exceptional artistic qualities in terms of reconstruction, thoroughness and empathy with the characters. We were all amazed when we discovered it in 2019. Then, the theme, a disaster. A true story is always stronger than fiction. On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the catastrophe, we found that it still had resonance in our lives with the current debate on nuclear power and the sensitivity of the younger generations to ecological problems. We thought that this period of history could interest our audience, which was very young at the time, in an original way, as M6 knows how to do. We are a fairly innovative channel in our programming, putting a cutting-edge series at the service of an artistic and historical ambition seemed a good idea to us. We knew that this series was not necessarily offered initially for a national terrestrial channel.
Some scenes of “Chernobyl” are very shocking …
It is not recommended for children under 12. We reported it accordingly, because we are responsible, we know that there is a young audience watching us. But it also gives lessons for history. What could have happened to prevent this from happening today? It is also the destinies of men and women who sacrificed themselves to allow the most total catastrophe to be avoided and that this spread over the whole of Europe. We are aware of that. It has such a purpose and such evocative force, that once we are inside, Chernobyl looks like a thriller. We are all the same on something quite broad in terms of interests.
Why is M6 positioned on this miniseries?
At M6, we are always on the lookout for everything that is being done, even when it comes to sharp series. We look at everything. We have a very well organized watch service. It’s a Pay TV series, platform, but we said to ourselves that it had a sufficiently broad subject to pass the course. On M6, we already had an experience like this last year with Why Women Kill by Mark Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives. The series was on an American SVOD platform, CBS All Access, unknown to the battalion. We fell in love with the series, which was not easy with three intertwined eras and a point on the place of women in these various eras. It was a fairly sharp and demanding series. We programmed it in full containment and more and it was a hit beyond our expectations. We became aware of something we had a presentiment of, but it is good to verify it by the numbers, namely that the public is ready to watch more demanding and shorter series. Why Women Kill, it’s only 10 episodes. The audience has evolved and they are ready for series like this. This encourages us to test other more precise, more demanding, shorter, more event-driven series. It gave us confidence.
You also program documentaries on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster …
To stand out, we don’t just broadcast the series, we editorialize the evening. We programmed in the second part of the evening, after the episodes, two documentaries selected with great care. We looked at everything that was being done on the issue. On May 27, we air a very ambitious documentary, The Battle of Chernobyl, which dates from 2006 and has had a lot of accolades. It is a classic that has been brought up to date because it had been produced when the catastrophe was 20 years old. The part concerning the sarcophagus has been played. The archival images are stunning and the documentary filmmaker’s remarks on The Battle of Chernobyl, in reference to the Battle of Stalingrad, is to highlight the sacrifice of the Russian people. It’s interesting when we saw the series to see this documentary. The second evening, we offer a very recent documentary, broadcast in March on Channel 5, Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle, Return to Chernobyl in French, which follows an intrepid English journalist who is used to going into dangerous, forbidden areas to see what happens. Ben Fogle went to Prypiat, the city evacuated during the disaster, and to the plant, in particular in the twin reactor with its engine room, which did not explode. There, we are amazed by the thoroughness of the reconstruction of the series. We also see that life is resuming its rights there. We want to go further and offer viewers to understand what happened and to better decipher this historic moment. Two beautiful full evenings!
What is M6’s editorial line in terms of TV series?
Eclectic, as always! We have always been keen to offer a wide variety of series to our audiences. We have mainstream series to bring together a large family audience with fun and friendly police officers, like NCIS or Hawaii 5.0 and more recently 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star with firefighters. We have always been keen to broadcast cutting-edge series like Californication or Sons of anarchy. We are the chain of Desperate Housewives, at the time, it was very new! As soon as something seems to be happening to us, like Prison Break in its time, we offer it to our viewers. We want to surprise them and we know that we are eagerly awaited on this. People often trust us when we launch something new. It is very comforting to see that we made the right choice and that we were not wrong. Sometimes, we do not have as much success as we hope, but often we are happy to know that we are a little in line with expectations by offering original and creative novelties, and especially not only in one niche: we broadcast thrillers, comedy, studies of manners and there, a historical series, a new territory. The international series offer allows us to do this.
How do you explain the failure of “This is Us” on M6 when the series is a hit in the United States?
It’s heartbreaking, I know. She did not take in prime time because there is a difficulty for the French public to project themselves into very American stories. And although the aficionados were very loyal, there weren’t enough of them to make it through this American life. The title has a double meaning: This is Us, it is “us, the family”, but also, “us, the US”, America at different times. She is very demanding and does not pass the cut. What consoles us is that in the second part of the evening, she scores very well. She cut her teeth behind Why Women Kill, then it went as a bonus afterwards, in view of the success in the 2nd part of the evening. We were then the first channel on commercial targets. We wondered if she would hold the bounty, the answer was no. It’s a disappointment, but we are proud because no one will say that this series is not fundamentally moving and fascinating. We are disappointed, but we do not regret.
News in foreign matters?
It’s a bit early to announce anything, but we have some British nuggets, series of 4 episodes. It could happen quite quickly. Season 2 of Why Women Kill will also happen quite quickly. As it is an anthology series, season 2 will have nothing to do with what we saw in season 1, but the common point will always be this major questioning of why women kill?
What is M6’s strategy for original creation?
What we want to do are events with fictions that bring together our 15-49 year old female audience, with strong stories, but, I prefer not to say more for the moment, because I will leave my role.
What conclusions do you draw from the previews of series like “They Were Ten” on the Salto platform?
This makes them known and allows you to have a nice exhibition platform, a bit like an advertising campaign. I can’t say more, because I will step out of my role. But, we pay close attention to what we put forward on Salto, and we consider that as a very positive experience in promoting our programs.
“The Saturday Trilogy” is an iconic program for series fans, have you considered relaunching this format?
It was iconic, people often talk about it. We did it again some time ago on 6Ter if I remember correctly. The magic of the trilogy was the magic of the trilogy series: Charmed, Buffy, Chameleon… The substance joined the form, they went well together, it was fantastic, this nostalgia is linked to these programs. Today, it would be weird to put a Why Women Kill, a This is us and another series. We don’t necessarily have the three that go together. It was a special alchemy, but if this alchemy happened again, we would of course not hesitate!